Darfur rebels advance on Sudan capital, their leader says

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- Hundreds of Darfur rebels reached the outskirts of Sudan's capital and were clashing with security forces, a rebel leader said Saturday.

Sudan's army deployed on the streets of Khartoum, putting up checkpoints and imposing an overnight curfew. An Interior Ministry statement said the curfew was in effect while the government was "dealing with the infiltrators."

The clashes come after days of government warnings that the Justice and Equality Movement, one of Darfur's most effective rebel movements, was going to target Khartoum. Saturday's attack is the closest the rebels have ever gotten to the capital.

An Associated Press reporter in Khartoum said security forces ordered residents to clear the streets and armored vehicles were patrolling the capital. Bridges to Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city, have been cut by government forces.

In a statement, the military said that "elements" of JEM had infiltrated northern Omdurman.

"Your heroic forces are confronting them now," the statement said, urging citizens to come forth with information.

The statement said the Sudanese forces had stopped the main advance of the JEM forces in neighboring province Kordofan, but that a few had reached Khartoum.

JEM leader Abu Zumam, however, told The Associated Press by telephone that hundreds of his fighters had reached Omdurman and engaged government forces. Gunfire could be heard in the background.

"We entered Omdurman by force," he said, adding that his army of some 700 vehicles planned to take over the state radio building in the city.

JEM once confined its activities to Darfur, where local ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated central government in 2003, complaining of discrimination.

In the last year, however, JEM has widened its activities to include Kordofan, the vast province between the capital and Darfur.

More than 200,000 have died in Sudan's Darfur region and 2.5 million have fled to refugee camps since 2003. Sudan denies backing the janjaweed militia of Arab nomads accused of the worst atrocities in the conflict.

Sudan officially accused neighboring Chad of attacking a border area to provide cover for JEM's attacks against the capital.

The Sudanese army spokesman, Brigadier General Osman al-Agbash, said Chadian forces on Friday attacked the border and were repelled with "heavy losses on the attacking Chadian forces," according to the official state news agency, SUNA.

Relations between the two countries, which share a long arid border region that is home to numerous armed groups, have long been strained.

Chad has accused Sudanese authorities of arming rebels who launched a failed assault in February on the Chadian capital, N'Djamena. The rebels reached the gate of the presidential palace, but fled toward Sudan after Chad's army repelled them in fighting that left hundreds dead.

Sudan, meanwhile, has repeatedly accused Chad of supporting the rebellion in Darfur.

Though the two countries signed a peace agreement in March promising to prevent armed groups from operating along each other's shared borders, the accusations have continued unabated.

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