A U.S. official warned a Sudanese official to stop arms smuggling convoys from passing through the country in February shortly before an aerial bombing destroyed a convoy headed for the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, according to a report in the London-based Arabic-language newspaper A-sharq Al-Awsat on Monday.
The U.S. official told his Sudanese counterpart that someone was tracking the arms shipments and that Sudan should stop them immediately. The Sudanese official passed the message on to the government and was told that “the matter will be looked into.” Only a short time later, a convoy was destroyed by an aerial bombing.
The paper explained that because the warning coincided with the bombing, Sudan thought that the U.S. had organized the attack. U.S. officials have denied any involvement, however, and senior U.S. sources confirmed that Israel was behind the attack. Seventeen trucks were destroyed and 39 people killed in the air force operation.
CBS News reported on the story first last week and claimed that Israel had bombed two convoys in Sudan during February that were carrying arms intended for Hamas. ABC News confirmed the report two days later but claimed that three convoys had been bombed, the first only a short time after Operation Cast Lead ended in January.
The London Times reported Sunday that Israeli Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) of the Hermes 450 and Eitan models carried out the attacks. According to the paper, the drones were chosen because they can hover in the air for a long period of time undetected before attacking. The report stated that the convoys were carrying Iranian Fajr-3 missiles which have a range of 43 kilometers, capable of reaching points well beyond Yavneh and Be’er Sheva if fired from Gaza.