Reuters: Sudan says Israel behind arms factory fire

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/24/us-sudan-planes-idUSBRE89N0WU20121024

Sudan says Israel behind arms factory fire

Four military planes attacked an arms factory in Khartoum where there was a huge fire overnight, a Sudanese minister said on Wednesday, blaming Israel for the air strike.

"Four military planes attacked the Yarmouk plant," Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman told reporters in Khartoum, adding the planes appeared to approach the site from the east.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/sudan-accuses-israel-of-role-in-arms-factory-blast-1.472047

Officials said there were no reports of deaths, although some residents had suffered from smoke inhalation.

Thick black smoke covered the sky covered the sky over the Yarmouk Military Industrial Complex in southern Khartoum. Sudan's media reported that nearby buildings were damaged by the blast, their roofs blown off and their windows shattered.

Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Mohamed Hussein and senior officials visited the site of the explosion and held an emergency meeting with top army generals while security forces sealed off the area surrounding the complex and halted traffic.

Khartoum governor Abdul-Rahman Khedr told SUNA agency that no one died in the explosion. He said the fire was under control and an investigation into the cause is under way.

In 2009, a convoy carrying weapons in northeastern Sudan was targeted from the air, killing dozens. It was widely believed that Israel carried out the attack on weapons shipment headed for Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. Israel never confirmed or denied that. Sudanese parliamentarians denied that weapons were transported in the area.

Do they have air defenses in Sudan?

[JMS]

And one must ask themselves why Israel would want to bomb a conventional arms factory not proximal fo their country?

I could see Israel doing it if they thought the sudanese were selling arms to Hamas or Hezbolah... but seriously why would Hamas or Hezbolah buy Sudanese weapons?

I think it's more likely we dis this because of Sudan's bad behavior, and the Sudanese are blaming Israel cause they are more afraid of ISrael and they think it makes them sound more bad ass to have been attacked by Israel. 500 miles from Israel's boarders? Wasn't Israel. Now if it were a nuke factory, or proximal to ISrael's borders then it would make sense.

---------- Post added October-25th-2012 at 01:25 AM ----------

[Do they have air defenses in Sudan?

Yes I think they purchasse some of our 1950's era duck and cover DVD's..

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/08/us-sudan-bashir-health-idUSBRE8A713420121108

Sudan's Bashir vows "painful response" to alleged Israel bombing

Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on Thursday promised his country would respond robustly to what he believes was an Israeli bombing of a Khartoum arms factory and said he was in "perfect health" after undergoing surgery in Saudi Arabia.

Sudan last month accused Israel of carrying out an air strike on the Yarmouk arms factory in the south of Khartoum, causing a blast that killed four people.

Israel has not commented on the charge, but has long accused Sudan of channeling weapons from Iran to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

"I am in perfect health, and our response to Israel will be painful," state radio quoted Bashir, 68, as saying in a brief text message sent to mobile phones.

[JMS]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/08/us-sudan-bashir-health-idUSBRE8A713420121108

I know what the guy's thining... we will talk a good game and get some peoples attention and maybe they will help us out with some coin... Problem with that kind of thinking is Israel typically pays pretty close attention to folks talking smack and almost never dismisses them without a serious nose smack. Iran 1000 miles away with hardenned targets is one thing... Suddan 500 miles down the red sea from Israel with really no defensive capabilities is another thing entirely... I could see Israel dropping a bomb on Bashir's tent just on general principle, not that I think they had anything to do with the destruction of the arms factory. I'm sure we did that.

[Koala]

And one must ask themselves why Israel would want to bomb a conventional arms factory not proximal fo their country?

I could see Israel doing it if they thought the sudanese were selling arms to Hamas or Hezbolah... but seriously why would Hamas or Hezbolah buy Sudanese weapons?

I think it's more likely we dis this because of Sudan's bad behavior, and the Sudanese are blaming Israel cause they are more afraid of ISrael and they think it makes them sound more bad ass to have been attacked by Israel. 500 miles from Israel's boarders? Wasn't Israel. Now if it were a nuke factory, or proximal to ISrael's borders then it would make sense.

---------- Post added October-25th-2012 at 01:25 AM ----------

Yes I think they purchasse some of our 1950's era duck and cover DVD's..

We may well have done this, it may well have been rockets and ammunition to deliver chemical weapons payloads. We will deny this, because the last time we accused Sudan of making illegal weapons and destroyed a plant, we kinda ended up looking like idiots when we were unable/unwilling to provide evidence for these claims except vague referrals to the oxymoronically named Egyptian Intelligence. Bashir managed to convince the international community that the U.S. had hit a medicinal factory, and blamed us for the following shortage of malaria medicine that lead to a brief epidemic of fatal P. falciparum malaria in Sudan. Whether or not this was true is irrelevant, our inability to counter his claims made us guilty by default. So, you can see, we would be keen to avoid a repeat of that episode.

On the other hand, your question as to why Hamas would want Sudanese weapons is...surprising. I know you can do better than that. First of all, Hamas is still making bottle-rockets and blowguns, last I checked. Second, the weapons are only Sudanese in that they are made in Sudan, they are not designed or engineered by Sudan. It shouldnt be hard to imagine that Sudan can follow instruction. As to why Sudan, its precisely because it was (thought to be) out of Israel's reach, and too low a priority for Obama to bother bombing. Dont forget that Bashir has worked hard to stay out of U.S. crosshairs after 9/11, bending over backwards to provide the U.S. with intelligence on regional fundamentalists and suspected terrorists (and the American public thought it was China's fault we didnt do anything about Darfur, haha). This may have put him, and his international backers (Syria, Iran), under the (false) impression that he was immune to U.S. attack.

He'd rather blame Israel, because as much as Sudans people dislike US policies, nobody in Sudan wants an overtly confrontational relationship with the U.S. Its hard to explain, but the the people only want a superficially-confrontational role against the U.S. Not a real one.