Sudan rebel front claims attack in S. Kordofan

Rebels in a "revolutionary front" aimed at toppling the Khartoum regime on Sunday claimed their first joint attack against government forces, but the army blamed troops from South Sudan instead.

Rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), which for several months has been fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states along the border with South Sudan, combined with Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) insurgents from the western region of Darfur, spokesmen for both groups said.

One analyst has dismissed the Revolutionary Front as "just a name," but an SPLM-N spokesman said the joint attack -- albeit with a small JEM component -- showed their commitment to work together.

"We are not just talking. We are doing it," Arnu Ngutulu Lodi of SPLM-N told AFP.

Last November, both rebel groups joined with factions of Darfur's Sudan Liberation Army to form the front dedicated to "popular uprising and armed rebellion" against the National Congress Party government in Khartoum.

"This attack is under the umbrella of the Sudanese Revolutionary Front," JEM spokesman Gibril Adam Bilal told AFP.

He said Sunday's offensive happened at Jau, a disputed area in an oil-rich region on the poorly defined border.

Sudan Armed Forces spokesman Sawarmi Khaled Saad confirmed that the area had come under attack, but he blamed the forces of South Sudan for the incident.

"This attack was completely planned and sponsored by the government of South Sudan," he said.

"The fighting is going on now."

Neither side could immediately give casualty figures.

Access to the state is restricted, making independent verification difficult.

Adam said the rebels had overrun the Sudanese position and seized weapons from them at Jau, "and now we are surrounding them in Taruje," about 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Jau.

The Sudanese army spokesman said the attack came six kilometres inside Sudan and originated from South Sudan's Unity state.

In December, Sudan accused the South Sudan army of attacking the Jau region, but Juba's military insisted its troops were defending an area on their side of the frontier.

Two weeks ago, Juba said Khartoum had bombed the same area from the air, violating a memorandum on non-aggression and cooperation signed this month.

Juba has accused Khartoum of several air raids in border districts but Sudan denied the attacks.

South Sudan broke away in July last year after an overwhelming vote for independence following more than two decades of war that killed two million people.

Border tensions have since flared, with each side accusing the other of supporting rebels within its territory, while a major dispute over oil transit fees remains unresolved.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that the crisis between the neighbours has become a major threat to regional peace and security, and Britain this month expressed "grave concern at the recent build-up of forces and escalation of tensions in conflict-affected border areas."

The ethnic minority insurgents from SPLM-N had previously fought alongside the former rebels now ruling in Juba.

Lodi, the SPLM-N spokesman, said Sunday's joint attack followed formalisation last week of the Revolutionary Front's structure. The Front named as its chairman Malik Agar, who is also chairman of SPLM-N. Another SPLM-N figure, Abdelaziz al-Hilu, is the Front's military commander.

JEM and SPLM-N had fought together once before, in August, and now that the alliance structure has been formalised more joint operations will occur "when appropriate," Lodi said.