(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-11 09:00

KHARTOUM  -- Khartoum announced on Saturday evening that the Sudanese army and police had crushed an infiltration attempt of rebels coming from the restive western Sudanese region of Darfur.

In a statement, Police Spokesman Mohamed Abdel-Mageed al-Tayeb declared that remnants of the forces of rebel Khalil Ibrahim that attempted to infiltrate to the capital were "repulsed".

Khalil Ibrahim is the leader of the JEM which is believed to have the most powerful armed forces among over two dozens of rebel groups in Darfur.

According to the police statement, a number of members of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) were killed in the fighting taking place in Omdurman Area in northwestern Khartoum.

Among the killed were the commander of the infiltrated force Mohamed Salih Garbo and intelligence commander of the force Mohamed Anwar Nur.

The infiltrators abandoned their vehicles and entered the residential quarters, said the spokesman, calling on the local residents to provide information about any suspected person.

He affirmed that the authorities would be able during the rest of this day to reach the remaining pockets of the infiltrators, who would face the legal measures.

Some infiltrators were arrested and government troops were picking up bodies, said the police.

It was unknown whether there were any soldiers or policemen killed in the clash, which erupted around 04:15 p.m. (1315 GMT) and lasted for some five hours.

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