BICOM

Reports in the Arab media say that an air strike was carried out last night on a military facility near Sudan’s capital Khartoum and have suggested that Israel is responsible for the raid.

The London-based Al-Araby news outlet quotes a military source saying that “foreign planes” had hit targets “in the area of Wadi Seidna in the city of Omdurman.” Local residents are quoted having seen flames in the sky and having heard large explosions. One report says that the target was a facility manufacturing long-range missiles. The Yemen Today website explicitly blames Israel for the air strike. There has been no response to the reports from Israeli officials.

In 2012, Sudanese officials accused Israel of having been responsible for an air operation which caused a huge explosion and fire at the Yarmouk arms factory in Khartoum. On this occasion too, Israel also refused to comment on the reports. However, Sudan is widely believed to be a conduit for arms into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip via neighbouring Egypt. Sudan has also blamed Israel for previous incidents within its borders, including the bombing of a convoy in the east of the country in 2009.

And last year, in a complex operation, Israeli naval forces seized control of a ship which was transporting Iranian weapons to Port Sudan, which were then to be smuggled overland into the Gaza Strip. The Klos-C, which was sailing under a Panamanian flag, was intercepted in international waters near the Sudanese coast, a full 930 miles from Israel. The vessel was found to be transporting 40 Syrian-made long range M-302 rockets, 180 mortar shells and 400,000 bullets.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is one of the few Arab leaders to maintain good diplomatic relations with Iran. Sudan has signed a series of military co-operation agreements with Tehran.