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Last Updated: Oct 28th, 2008 - 17:57:18 |
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese soldiers and rebels said on Tuesday they had clashed in a remote territory of Darfur over the weekend.
The rebel Sudan Liberation Movement's Unity (SLM-Unity) faction said it killed 157 Sudanese soldiers after ambushing an army brigade near Um Keddada in North Darfur on Sunday.
SLM-Unity spokesman Mahgoub Hussein said by email the insurgents had defeated the Sudanese troops, seized a large number of weapons and vehicles, and lost seven of their own fighters.
"We fought them because they were coming into our territory," SLM-Unity's general commander Abu Bakr Kadu told Reuters by phone. He said the fighting lasted about five hours and "many government soldiers were killed".
Armed forces spokesman Brigadier Uthman al-Agbash told state media 14 Sudanese soldiers died in repelling the rebel attack.
The Sudanese Media Centre quoted him as saying the insurgents had fled the area "leaving behind huge losses of material and human resources".
The joint U.N./African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on Tuesday confirmed there had been fighting in the area east of the capital of north Darfur El Fasher.
"We will be sending an investigation team to the area no later than tomorrow," said UNAMID spokesman Noureddine Mezni.
SLM-Unity last month said it was stepping up its military activity and would start attacking military targets outside Darfur in neighboring Kordofan region and beyond.
It also threatened to attack Khartoum following an unprecedented assault on the capital by Darfur rebels the Justice and Equality Movement.
SLM-Unity's statements have sparked fresh fears about faltering international efforts to restart peace talks in Sudan's remote and violent west.
More than five years of conflict in Darfur has killed 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes, say international experts. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.
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