Sudan vows ‘painful response’ to Israel attack

Sudan’s President Omar Bashir yesterday promised his country would respond robustly to an Israeli bombing of a Khartoum arms factory and said he was in “perfect health” after undergoing surgery. Sudan last month accused Israel of carrying out an air strike on the Yarmouk arms factory in the south of Khartoum, causing a blast that killed four people. “I am in perfect health, and our response to Israel will be painful,” state radio quoted Bashir, 68, as saying in a brief text message sent to mobile phones. In a separate development, rebels in Sudan’s main oil state said yesterday they had shot down a government Antonov military aircraft after it had bombed targets in the territory’s Nuba mountains area. Insurgents from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North said in an e-mailed statement they had downed the aircraft around 5 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Wednesday in South Kordofan state’s Jau area, near the border with South Sudan. From: Arab News