Sudanese Officials Escape Harm After Missile Hits Plane
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KHARTOUM, Sudan — A surface-to-air missile hit a plane carrying Sudan’s defense minister and several senior army commanders, but the aircraft landed safely, an official statement said Saturday.
The incident occurred Thursday just after the Hercules C-130 took off from the town of Wau in southern Sudan, according to the statement released by the Sudanese armed forces command.
The statement did not accuse the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army of firing the SAM-7 missile--a type used by both the southern rebels and the Sudanese army--but the rebels have long threatened to shoot down any aircraft flying to the south without their permission.
The incident came a day after an initial cease-fire agreement was signed in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa between rebel leader John Garang and a delegation from the second-largest partner in Sudanese Prime Minister Sadek Mahdi’s coalition government.
The agreement won Mahdi’s support and that of other political leaders, but it hasn’t been officially approved by the Cabinet.
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