REBELS: SIX CIVILIANS KILLED
JEM field commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr said six civilians were killed on Tuesday in bombing raids on villages near Haskanita, and a JEM statement asked aid groups to help bury 500 to 600 government soldiers it said were killed in a failed ground attack on Haskanita after an aerial bombardment.
The Sudanese army spokesman dismissed the rebel report on army casualties as an exaggeration, and blamed the rebels for the violence. He said the army had been ambushed and was then forced to call in air support as backup.
"It was a hostile action by the rebels," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There were casualties on both sides. The situation remains unstable."
Reports from rebel groups of the numbers of casualties and prisoners taken during that fighting have varied widely.
U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said hijacking of aid vehicles by militias and other groups in Darfur was "continuing at an alarming rate".
Three displaced people were kidnapped and killed in south Darfur's Kalma camp on Saturday. On Sunday, 20 women from Al-Hamidya camp in west Darfur were detained by an Arab militia as they went to collect firewood but were later released.
Meanwhile, ailing senior Darfur rebel figure Suleiman Jamous, the Sudan Liberation Movement's humanitarian coordinator, said he had finally received a passport and exit visa and would leave the country for medical care as soon as the United Nations could arrange a flight.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in the past 4-1/2 years of violence in Darfur, fuelled by ethnic and political conflict. Khartoum says 9,000 have died.
