Sudan shooting after rebel raid
 There was heavy fighting in Khartoum's twin city, Omdurman |
Shooting has been heard in two separate parts of Sudan's capital, Khartoum, following a raid by Darfur rebels.
Details are sketchy - in one incident a lot of shooting was heard and roads closed after security forces pursued a small group of suspected rebels.
There was also at least one arrest near the US embassy.
Sudan's Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi has been arrested and accused of links to the rebels, who on Saturday came close to the capital.
Mr Turabi's wife told the BBC that the soldiers who arrested him connected him to the weekend attack on Omdurman, the capital's twin city, just over the River Nile.
Mr Turabi denies any links to the Rebel Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) rebels but its leader used to be close to him - as did Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.
Sudan says it has proof that neighbouring Chad backed the rebels.
The weekend attack was the closest the rebels have come to Khartoum during five years of fighting.
 Hassan al-Turabi fell out with President Bashir in the 1990s |
The authorities had said the rebels had been repulsed.
Jem leader Khalil Ibrahim says his group will launch more attacks on Khartoum.
"This is just the start of a process and the end is the termination of this regime," he told Reuters news agency by satellite phone.
He said he was speaking from Omdurman but this could not be independently verified.
Sudan's ambassador to the UN, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, told the BBC that captured rebels had identified Chadian officers killed during the assault.
Sudan has severed diplomatic ties with Chad, which denies any involvement.
A senior official said searches were under way in Khartoum for individuals thought to be insiders who may have helped the insurgents.
State television said earlier that at least 100 people had been arrested.
Reward
Mr Turabi's wife, Wisal al-Madhi, told the BBC's Network Africa programme that her husband had been away from the capital over the weekend.
She said he was arrested first thing on Monday morning.
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"They had three cars full of soldiers and munitions and arms, and they took him to the prison in Khartoum North directly."
At least four other members of Mr Turabi's Popular Congress have also been arrested, party officials say.
Mr Turabi was Sudan's main Islamist ideologue in the 1990s before falling out with President Bashir. He has since been imprisoned several times.
Jem leader Khalil Ibrahim used to be one of his followers and retains an Islamist outlook.
Sudan has offered a reward of $125,000 (£64,000) for Mr Ibrahim's capture and information that leads to his arrest.
Chad said it regretted Sudan's "hasty decision" to break off diplomatic ties.
Jem has also denied being backed by Chad.
Oil targets
Senior Jem official Tahir el-Faki told the BBC that they had already exposed the government's weakness in the assault over the weekend.
He admitted that 45 rebels had been either killed or wounded in the heavy fighting.
 | JEM REBELS  Founded by Darfuri Muslims loyal to Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi Led by lawyer Khalil Ibrahim Muhammad Believed to have up to 3,000 fighters Now said to have fragmented into several disparate groups  |
But he said that as well as further attacks on Khartoum, they would also continue to target oil installations in South Kordofan province to cut off the government's main source of income.
On Saturday, Jem rebels said they had taken Omdurman and the Wadi Saidna air force base about 16km (10 miles) north of Khartoum, and entered the capital itself.
Omdurman residents said there had been more fighting on Sunday morning.
Experts say Chad and Sudan are fighting a proxy war using each other's rebels to achieve their military objectives.
Earlier this year, rebels reached Chad's capital N'Djamena, with Chad accusing Sudan of involvement.
The Jem is one of several rebel groups fighting the government and pro-government Janjaweed militia in the western Darfur region since 2003 over alleged discrimination by the authorities in favour of Arabs.
The rebels have been involved in raids on government forces in the area before.
article from BBC News: There is also an excellent post about this at the SSRC blog Making Sense of Darfur. Highlight:
Spokesmen for JEM have said that they are fighting for the CPA and its fair implementation, but most people who have followed JEM’s politics consider this no more than a tactic to win the support of Southerners who would otherwise distrust JEM’s Islamist origins, its fierce opposition to Southern separatism and the Chadian fingerprints on its operation. JEM’s manifesto speaks of democracy and human rights—justice and equality no less—but its putchist strategy is the antithesis of compromise, democratic politics and civil liberties. Both the Omdurman attack and the inevitable government response imperil Sudan’s shaky path to democratization and the South’s aim of exercising the right of self-determination. First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit saw these dangers when he spoke out against the attack.
The three towns of Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North have enjoyed a remarkable social peace during the last quarter century of war. There has been everyday racism and discrimination but astonishingly little violence. That coexistence may now be in jeopardy. For many Khartoum natives and people of the riverain north—the awlad al balad—JEM’s attack was an assault on their hitherto peaceful and prosperous territory. It was a shock and a horror and many are rallying to the government. Opposition politicians from the north hope that their voices of moderation may help prevent pogroms against the Zaghawa and other suspected JEM supporters and keep alive the prospects of elections next year.
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