Chad denies Darfur raids
2009-07-18 21:06
Ndjamena - Chad's government on Friday denied accusations that it launched air raids on the Sudanese region of Darfur, saying it bombed rebel positions on its own territory.
"We targeted the [rebel] Union of Forces of Resistance and not Sudanese villages," government spokesperson Mahamat Hissene told AFP, adding the raids were in eastern Chad near the Sudan border.
Hissene accused Sudan of trying to send in "mercenaries with arms and mines to destabilise us".
"We decided to deal with them by aircraft to destroy them," he said, adding that the Chadian planes chose their targets carefully and "we never targeted villages".
Sudan accused Chad on Thursday of launching air raids on Darfur, an area believed to be the base of Chadian opposition rebels, state media reported.
The Sudan Media Centre website, which is considered close to the intelligence services, reported that two Chadian planes had raided the Umm Dukhun area of Western Darfur on Thursday.
Quoting senior military officials, it said there were no casualties but that the Sudanese army was on "standby" and waiting for "the green light for retaliation".
The rebel Union of Forces of Resistance had meanwhile claimed the Chadian air force attacked two villages in the southeastern Chadian region of Tissi on Thursday morning, across the border from Western Darfur.
In May, Chadian insurgents coming from Sudan launched an offensive against Ndjamena, but Chad's army forced them back to west Sudan, where they are based.
Chad has accused Sudan of supporting rebels seeking to oust President Idriss Deby Itno, while Khartoum has charged Ndjamena with backing ethnic minority rebels in Darfur.
- SAPA