Residents say 114 people were killed in total by the attacks, but the army insists some were rebels wearing civilian clothes.
JANJAWEED ATTACK
Sudan denies any link to the militia, known locally as Janjaweed, who attacked all three towns just before their forces entered. Suleia residents said they saw three planes circle overhead as the militia rode into town.
"Only one bombed - a white Antonov," said elderly Mariam Abu Eissa.
JEM defeated Sudan's army and took control of the town in early December but, hearing of the impending attack they had left a few days before, one resident said.
Suleia elder Abdallah Ibrahim el-Nur said the bombing and militia killed some 32 people. They had buried many soon after but some bodies were only found after five days lying in the sun, rotten and bloated.
"Some of them were so burnt (from the bombing) that you could not even tell if they were women or men," Nur said.
He said the army arrived a day after the militia but took another four days to control their looting and drive them out. But he said the army never exchanged fire with the men.
"The government gives with its right hand and takes with its left," Nur said when asked how he felt that the army had bombed the town first before coming to secure it and drive away the armed looters.
But they did not go far. Four Suleia elders went to show a Reuters correspondent the site of the bombing, but ran into Janjaweed still lurking in the deserted east of the town.
One man on horseback took out his rifle and the Suleia residents ran, zigzagging until they took shelter and hid behind a walled hut.
Eventually joint U.N.-African Union peacekeepers and the Sudanese army arrived and the militia, who were shooting in the air, left.
But that brief experience was a clear indication why the few residents left in town were living in the school in the town's central square and had not returned to their homes.
Despite initial reports that the entire town had been burnt, only a few dozen homes had been scorched. But the Janjaweed continued to loot.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for a junior government minister and an allied militia leader accused of conspiring in war crimes. Khartoum refuses to hand them over.
