Sudan Rebels Claim Clash in Strategic Region

Sudanese rebels clashed with government forces on Saturday for the second time this week in the strategic South-North Kordofan region, the insurgents said.

The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfur-based group which is part of a wider rebel alliance seeking to topple the government, said it ambushed a convoy north of Dilling town.

The army spokesman could not be reached for comment.

There has been an upsurge of rebel activity since April in the South-North Kordofan boundary region, through which passes the main road link to the national capital Khartoum.

Dilling is on the route linking the South Kordofan state capital Kadugli with El Obeid, North Kordofan's capital which is home to an air force base and an oil refinery.

Residents of Dilling said they heard gunfire and explosions coming from north of the town.

"Authorities ordered buses traveling to El Obeid to cancel their trips," one resident said, asking for anonymity because of the situation.

On Wednesday, both the JEM and the army said they had fought at Sidrah, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Dilling in North Kordofan.

That attack ended weeks of relative calm in the area.

It came as the African Union and East Africa's regional bloc, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), launched a panel to probe allegations by Sudan and South Sudan that each is supporting rebels operating on the other's territory.

Because of the allegations, Khartoum has threatened to close an economically vital pipeline carrying South Sudanese oil for export.

JEM spokesman Gibril Adam Bilal said that after the ambush, surviving government troops fled towards Dilling where fighting continued on the town's outskirts.

He said six government troops were killed, but analysts say casualty figures from either side in the war should be treated with caution.

The rebels also took some prisoners, Bilal said.

The JEM and two factions of the Sudan Liberation Army in Darfur belong to the Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF), an alliance with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), a group which has been fighting for two years in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

SPLM-N spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi said his forces were in the Dilling area but he could not immediately confirm that they joined Saturday's fighting.

The latest incident is a follow-up to the Sidrah battle earlier in the week as rebels seek to sever key logistical routes in the area, a regional analyst said.

Those routes include the road to Kadugli and the stretch from El Obeid to Kosti, a key point on the way to Khartoum.

The SRF rebel alliance staged its first joint operation in April, sweeping through a previously peaceful part of North Kordofan near Sidrah as part of coordinated attacks in the region.

Analysts said those rebel strikes humiliated the authorities, who took a month to retake one of the seized areas, Abu Kershola.