[quote]A "foreign" aircraft has destroyed a car near Sudan's city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, killing its two passengers, local officials say.
Police say a missile probably came from the direction of the Red Sea. Some sources suggest two helicopters could have been involved.
The car, said to be a Hyundai Sonata, was about 15km (nine miles) south of Port Sudan at the time.
There was no immediate word on the identity of the two victims.
Security forces have now sealed off the area, reports say.
So far no-one has claimed to have carried out the attack.
"We heard three loud explosions," a source at Port Sudan airport told Reuters news agency.
"Eyewitnesses told us they saw two helicopters which looked liked Apaches flying past."
The car had been travelling into the city from the airport, one Sudanese official said.
Gaza connection?
In 2009 the Sudanese authorities said a convoy of arms smugglers was hit by unidentified aircraft in Sudan's eastern Red Sea state.
There was speculation at the time that the strike may have been carried out by Israel to stop weapons bound for Gaza.
The then Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, appeared to give credence to an Israeli hand in that attack, saying "we operate everywhere where we can hit terror infrastructure - in close places and in places further away".
Israel has not commented on the latest incident.
The BBC's James Copnall, in the Sudanese capital, says Hamas, the group which controls the Gaza Strip, is on good terms with Khartoum.
There has been an uneasy peace in eastern Sudan for several years, following one of Sudan's many civil wars.
But the region is very underdeveloped even by Sudanese standards, and there are fears about increased illegal activity there, our correspondent says.[/quote]
Source- [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12976951[/url]
What's interesting to me is that if Israel did carry out the attack (which they probably did), how did they get those helicopters there along such a distance without being detected?
What benefit would Israel get out of bombing a random car?
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;29022492]What benefit would Israel get out of bombing a random car?[/QUOTE]
Probably not so random.
I think the identities of the people who were in it are kept disclosed for a reason.
And I mean, come on, Apache helicopters?
Two helicopters that looked like Apaches, hmm.
Now that's overkill.
Port Sudan is quite far away from Israel though. I guess there is a proper story or reason behind this.
But hey it was that evil rouge state Israel wasn't it? :v: :bandwagon:
[QUOTE=Brage Nyman;29023575]Port Sudan is quite far away from Israel though. I guess there is a proper story or reason behind this.
But hey it was that evil rouge state Israel wasn't it? :v: :bandwagon:[/QUOTE]
[quote=article]
The then Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, appeared to give credence to an Israeli hand in that attack, saying "we operate everywhere where we can hit terror infrastructure - in close places and in places further away".
[/quote]
[QUOTE=Glorbo;29022163]Source- [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12976951[/url]
What's interesting to me is that if Israel did carry out the attack (which they probably did), how did they get those helicopters there along such a distance without being detected?[/QUOTE]
Probably flying them underneath radar coverage.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;29022492]What benefit would Israel get out of bombing a random car?[/QUOTE]Assassination, perhaps? A rather unconventional method, but a Hellfire loooooves vehicles. If that is the case, I dunno why they didn't go for something more low-key.
[QUOTE=Sgt Doom;29023889]Probably flying them underneath radar coverage.
Assassination, perhaps? A rather unconventional method, but a Hellfire loooooves vehicles. If that is the case, I dunno why they didn't go for something more low-key.[/QUOTE]
If you see your boss get the fuck blown out of him from a helicopter that must have traveled far, far away, would you really be encouraged to keep doing terrorist stuff?
It wouldn't surprise me if the Israelis possessed the drones necessary to pull off such a mission.
But then people report Apache gunships leaving the scene? While Israeli pilots are reported to be badasses, I don't think even they can travel that distance without being detected. Even assuming they could manage it with the helicopters, the trip far exceeds the operational range of the Apache and would require a mid-flight refueling. AFAIK Apaches don't even have refueling probes.
Wow, "Jornal Nacional" now on facepunch!
The operational range of an Apache is less than one third the distance to Port Sudan, which makes them a totally bizarre choice for this kind of mission. Nobody actually saw the helicopters fire, did they? According to the report, eyewitnesses only saw them "flying past."
This kind of strike is more suited to unmanned drones. I can't imagine where the helicopters might have come from, but their involvement seems unlikely if this mission was truly orchestrated by Israel. Unless they were launched from a ship in the Red Sea, which it seems like they would have had to have been in order to both be within range AND to approach the target undetected, the distance is simply too great. As GunFox said, they would have had to have been refueled at least three times had they come from Israel, and that's only accounting for a one-way trip. If Israel orchestrated the attack, they must have a ship capable of supporting aircraft in the Red Sea.
Well, first we'd have to see which countries use apaches, then see if distance traveled is feasible. From the location of Port Sudan in Sudan, and countries with apaches in operation. None of the countries firing on Libya could reach Port Sudan, unless the US has a carrier in the Red Sea or something, and the main two countries that they could have originated from are either Egypt of Saudi Arabia. I doubt Egypt would conduct strikes right now since they're still rebuilding. So the helicopters could have come from Saudi Arabia. Now that's assuming that the helicopters did a round trip and that they were the shooters. Does Saudi Arabia have any cause for launching an attack on Sudanese citizens?
It is unlikely to be the US, as you have said.
But even with a carrier in the region, US Apaches are not configured to be carrier launched. If we were to use gunships for something like this using a carrier, it would be a SuperCobra.
Apaches are US Army and US Army pilots don't, to the best of my knowledge, bother training to land on ships unless they specifically require it. Marine pilots and Naval aviators would have the necessary training to do so, but neither of them possess people trained to use the Apache.
If it was Israel, America probably helped them out by letting them fly in undetected. Or maybe the CIA is killing high priority civilian targets with Our Military Resources
Or maybe the entire "event" was really an advanced hoax perpetrated by the American government in order to test its new memory-altering enslavement ray!
Or maybe you've just been watching too many movies.
"Hamas military commander killed in Sudan air strike"
Al-Arabiya reports 1 of 2 killed in strike was senior commander of Hamas military wing; Sudan FM says fatal hit "absolutely an Israeli attack."
Talkbacks (5)
Shortly after Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti on Wednesday accused Israel of carrying out an attack on Tuesday near Port Sudan that killed two people, Arabic news daily Al-Arabiya reported that one of the targets was a senior Hamas military commander.
The report said that the second man that was killed was a local citizen.
RELATED:
Two killed in Israeli air strike on Hamas compound in Gaza
Sudan's foreign minister said Khartoum reserved the right to react to the aggression. "This is absolutely an Israeli attack," he told reporters.
He said Israel undertook the attack in order to scupper Sudan's chances of being removed from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism.
One of the two people killed in the strike was a Sudanese citizen who had no ties to Islamists or the government, he said.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declined to comment on the accusation.
Sudanese officials have offered different versions on how the strike was carried out. Police say a missile struck the car near the port city, but a state government official blamed the bombing on a foreign aircraft that flew in from the Red Sea.
Sudanese officials in 2009 said unknown aircraft had killed scores in a strike on a convoy of suspected arms smugglers on a remote road in the east, which some reports said may have been carried out by Israel to stop weapons bound for Gaza.
Sudan is on a US list of state sponsors of terrorism, but Washington this year initiated the process to remove it from that list after a peaceful January referendum in which the country's south voted to secede."
Source- [url]http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=215411&R=R3[/url]
This kind of narrows it down, though if Gunfox is right and Apache helicopters really can't reach Sudan from Israel with their current range, then how did the Israelis do it?
My best guess is some kind of US backing.
I'm still calling B.S.
[QUOTE=Glorbo;29031880]
This kind of narrows it down, though if Gunfox is right and Apache helicopters really can't reach Sudan from Israel with their current range, then how did the Israelis do it?
My best guess is some kind of US backing.[/QUOTE]
It wouldn't be the United States unless it was a drone strike. Then it might be the United States.
Apaches simply wouldn't be used in this instance. Cobras would be incredibly unlikely.
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