(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-12 07:34

KHARTOUM - The Sudanese government termed on Sunday night the Saturday's attack by rebels in Khartoum as a " terrorist operation for sabotage," announcing that the operation had "finished."

The remarks made by Kamal Obeid, the minister of state in the Sudanese Ministry of Information and Communications, following an emergency cabinet meeting chaired by President Omer al-Bashir.

"This terrorist operation for sabotage was plotted by Chad and carried out by Khalil Ibrahim, the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)," Sudanese official told reporters.

The JEM is believed to have the most powerful forces among rebel groups in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, which amount to over two dozens.

Kamal Obeid also admitted the existence of a "fifth fleet," referring to collaborators of the JEM rebels inside the regime without giving the details.

During the meeting, the cabinet listened to reports made by the ministers of defense and interior, according to Kamal Obeid.

"The Council of Ministers praised the big professional work performed by the armed security forces as well as the police, which led to the defeat of the rebelling forces," noted Kamal Obeid.

He said that the cabinet instructed the authorities concerned to collect the vehicles and weapons used by the rebels in the attack in order to show them to the public on the scale of the rebel operation.

"The casualties and material losses are still being counted, and the statistics will be announced as soon as they are completed, " the Sudanese official said.  

The Sudanese government announced on Saturday evening that the army and the police had crushed the attempt of the JEM rebels to infiltrate into the capital and carry out sabotage activities there, killing and capturing a number of infiltrators.

It was the first time for rebels in Darfur to enter Khartoum and launch attacks there since bloody conflicts erupted in the western Sudanese region neighboring Chad in February, 2003.

An anonymous source in the Sudanese Armed Forces told Xinhua that over 60 rebel militants were killed and some 120 others captured during the Saturday's fighting at Omdurman, which is the northern gate of the Sudanese capital.

The official SUNA news agency reported that more than 300 rebels had been arrested, and 60 vehicles seized or destructed by Sunday noon, noting that the military commander of the JEM, Jamal Hassan Jala-Eddin, was killed by the troops on the outskirts of Khartoum on Sunday.

The Sudanese army said that the operation for searching the remanent rebels who could being hiding at any place, asking local residents to inform if they find any suspected persons.