By IANS,
Khartoum: Rebels in Sudan’s troubled Blue Nile state Friday claimed to have killed 79 Sudanese soldiers in the latest battle on the border with South Sudan, where armed clashes have been taking place since last September.
Arnu Talodi, a spokesman of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North Sector, said that the battles between its forces and the Sudanese army in an area 39 km south of Damazin, the capital of Blue Nile state, led to the killing of 79 soldiers, Xinhua reported.
The rebel group lost three fighters and nine members were injured, he added.
A total of “12 soldiers of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have been captured during the clashes, which are still going on,” Talodi told Xinhua over telephone.
He said his fighters “had set up an ambush for the SAF troops” before causing the government troops heavy casualties.
“We are now seeking to move to large cities in Blue Nile and liberate them, and the goal is to seize the city of Damazin, the state capital, and we are ready to counter any attacks by the Sudanese army,” said Talodi.
Fighting between the SAF and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N) erupted in South Kordofan state in June last year, just one month before South Sudan officially announced its secession from Sudan, and spread to nearby Blue Nile in September.