Israel Matzav

Breaking: Israel hits weapons convoy in Sudan again? UPDATED with interview with Ronen Bregman

You will recall that two years ago, Israel destroyed a convoy of weapons that was heading from Sudan to Gaza. It has apparently happened again (Hat Tip: Shy Guy).

A plane described as "foreign" attacked a car near the city of Port Sudan Tuesday, killing two people, the Sudan media center said, in what might have been a strike against weapons smuggling.

The report, quoting a member of parliament, said the car was on the road leading to the Port Sudan airport when it was attacked by the plane, which was following it.

The media center said the Sudanese military directed anti-aircraft fire at the plane and chased it out of Sudanese air space, adding it "confirmed it was a foreign plane." The report did not say where the plane came from or where it went and did not identify the two dead people, who were in the car when it was hit.

...

The member of Sudan's parliament quoted by the media center, Mustafa Mundir, denied that weapons are transported in the area. He called for a government investigation.

The Sudanese government and military had no immediate comment.

Reuters has more.

The aircraft flew in from the Red Sea but it was not clear to whom it belonged, Ahmed Tahir, the speaker of parliament in the Red Sea state where the port city is located, told Reuters.

"We heard three loud explosions," a source at Port Sudan airport told Reuters. "We went outside to see what was happening and eye witnesses told us they saw two helicopters which looked liked Apaches flying past."

Separately, a witness at the scene of the incident told Reuters he could see two burned bodies -- one inside a car and the other lying on the ground outside the vehicle.

The Sudanese Media Center, a news agency linked to Sudan's state security apparatus, said cars were struck in a bombing by an unknown plane but gave no further details.

Security forces at the scene were preventing people from getting close to the site, a witness told Reuters from the site of the attack about 20 km outside Port Sudan city.

Please recall also that three weeks ago, Egypt captured weapons that were heading from Sudan to Gaza.

Stay tuned - I'm expecting an update on this within the hour.

UPDATE 8:37 AM

Israel radio interviews defense analyst Ronen Bregman, who describes this as a targeted assassination of weapons smugglers.

He says weapons travel from Iran to Sudan to Gaza via Egypt and the Gaza tunnels (and also from Iran to Syria to Turkey to Gaza after being dropped into the waters off Sinai and smuggled from there through the tunnels).

The weapons involved here are weapons that Hamas cannot manufacture.

The Iranians work full time finding weapons for Hamas, but they only smuggle what cannot be manufactured in Gaza.

We don't know yet who was assassinated (Bregman implies that he knows who they were).

Intelligence cooperation between IDF and foreign agencies and Mossad is quite good. Mossad identifies targets.

Key here is impressive capability of Israeli intelligence and ability to strike so far away.

UPDATE 9:06 AM

What a shock. Israel Radio's 9:00 am news cites 'conflicting reports' that have the vehicle being destroyed either by "an aviation vehicle that came from the Red Sea" or by "a marine vehicle anchored offshore."

Maybe it was both.

Still no word on who was fried.

Heh.

Labels: Gaza, Sudan, weapons smuggling

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:03 AM