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KHARTOUM - Chad said it routed a major rebel attack launched from Sudan today to destabilise its government, but Khartoum accused Chad's army of killing 17 of its troops and threatened a strong response.
The accusations marked a deterioration in the volatile relations between the two central African
neighbours, marred by violence spilling across the frontier of Sudan's Darfur region.
Chadian Information Minister Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor said a convoy of 200 rebel vehicles from Sudan was defeated after attacking army positions in the border village of Aldjirema.
At least eight Chadian soldiers and numerous rebels were killed, he said.
"Chad expects the international community to unequivocally condemn this enemy aggression led from Sudan against Chad and take appropriate measures to compel the Sudanese government to abandon its expansionist plans to destabilise Chad," the minister said in a statement.
However, Sudanese armed forces spokesman Mohammed Aghbash said Chadian troops backed by seven armoured vehicles and 140 armed off-road vehicles has crossed the border and attacked Sudanese troops before being forced to withdraw.
Seventeen army and police personnel were killed while 40 others were wounded in the attack, which also left numerous civilian casualties, he said.
"We send a strong message to all traitors and those who seek to escalate the situation that the response would be strong and through all legitimate means," Aghbash said in the statement carried on the official Sudanese news agency SUNA.
A Chadian presidency official in N'Djamena, who asked not to be identified, denied the army had crossed the border or clashed with Sudanese forces.
The accusations came just two months after Chadian President Idriss Deby and Sudanese leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir signed a non-aggression pact in the Libyan capital Tripoli in an effort to calm rising regional tensions. The four-year war in Darfur, which has killed an estimated 200,000 people, has driven hundreds of thousands of refugees into Chad and prompted the United Nations to study a peacekeeping force for the country's lawless east.
N'Djamena accuses Sudan of supporting Chadian rebels based in Darfur, while Sudanese Arab militia known as "Janjaweed" are raiding ever further into eastern Chad.
Khartoum has denied any support for Chadian insurgents but accuses N'Djamena in turn of backing the rebels in Darfur.
Doumgor said the convoy was made up of several rebel groups fighting a low intensity war against Deby's government. Rebel casualty figures were not yet available but 38 of their vehicles were destroyed in the attack, he said.
The rebel Chadian National Concord (CNT), in a statement signed by its military commander Mahamad Hassan Kokiss, confirmed heavy fighting had taken place but said government forces had attacked its troops first.
"After six hours of resistance our forces redeployed to new positions and the enemy remains within our reach," Kokiss said, saying the fighting violated the agreement signed in the Libyan capital Tripoli. He did not explain why.
The CNT said the rebels had lost just three vehicles and 10 men, while destroying 35 government vehicles and killing numerous soldiers.
- REUTERS