18 March 2009

Israeli Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted on Thursday at Israel's suspected role in an air-strike that reportedly hit a convoy of trucks as it drove through Sudan toward Egypt in January.

"Israel hits every place it can in order to stop terror, near and far," Olmert claimed. Speaking at a political marketing conference at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Olmert said "there is no point in going into details, and everyone can use their imagination. Those who need to know – know."
 
Earlier Thursday, two senior Sudanese politicians confirmed that unidentified aircraft attacked the convoy, killing almost everyone in it.
 
CBS television network reported Thursday that Israeli fighter jets struck in January a convoy of trucks in Sudan that was headed for Egypt and carrying weapons apparently meant for the Gaza Strip.
According to the report 17 trucks had been bombed and 39 people had been killed in the strike while civilians in the area suffered injuries.
 
The CBS report was based on information provided to Pentagon reporter David Martin by his sources, and published on the blog of the network's Washington-based correspondent Dan Raviv.
 
According to another report, in the SudanTribune.com website, Israel intelligence has tracked down the convoy northwest of the city of Port Sudan, as it was moving north, and the bombing took place near Mount al-Sha’anoon.
 
The CBS report also mentions an agreement signed between Israel and the US following Operation Cast Lead in Gaza that calls for increased international efforts to curb weapon smuggling into Hamas-led Gaza.
 
Two weeks ago, Israel welcomed an agreement by the US, Canada and seven European states to coordinate anti-smuggling efforts.
The US, Britain, Norway, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands and Denmark agreed that "non-coercive" methods would be used to clamp down on the arms flow. Such methods would utilize diplomatic, military, intelligence and law enforcement resources.
 
The Sudanese website added that the attack was "an embarrassment" to the local government, which discussed the matter with Cairo in order to gather more information and formulate a response.
 
Egyptian media had reported that American aircrafts bombarded a convoy suspected of carrying weapons to Gaza.
 
On the basis of the report from Sudan, American reporters sought confirmation from U.S. administration officials, which led them to the conclusion that the air strike did take place but that the U.S. Air Force was not involved and that the aircraft were Israeli.
 
In the original Sudanese report, an unidentified Egyptian official was quoted as saying that the planes that carried out the attack were based out of many countries in the region, and some observers guessed that he meant Djibouti.