Hamas official targeted in Sudan attack, Palestinians say
April 7, 2011
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- The target of an airstrike on a car in
Sudan blamed on Israel was a high-ranking Hamas official, Palestinian
intelligence officials said.
One of the men killed in Tuesday's attack was Abdul-Latif Ashkar, who
coordinated weapons smuggling for Hamas and was the successor of
Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh, the Hamas official assassinated in a Dubai hotel
room in January 2010, the Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported
Thursday
"This is absolutely an Israeli attack," Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali
Karti told reporters Wednesday in the capital of Khartoum, Reuters
reported.
On Tuesday, an unidentified plane reportedly flew into Sudanese
airspace from the Red Sea and bombed the car, killing its two
passengers, before flying back the way it came. The plane evaded several
missiles fired by the Sudanese army.
Karti said one of the car's dead passengers was a Sudanese citizen with no government or Islamist ties.
Israel was accused in 2009 of a deadly strike on a convoy of trucks
in eastern Sudan suspected of being arms smugglers transporting weapons
bound for the Gaza Strip.