KHARTOUM, Oct 9: A Sudanese army assault killed at least 45 people in the Darfur town of Muhajiriya, where bodies littered the streets amid burned out buildings, rebels who control the area said on Tuesday.

“Until now the number of dead civilians are at least 40, with 80 missing and a large number of injured,” the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) said in a statement sent to Reuters.

It added five SLA soldiers were killed and eight injured.

The SLA faction led by Minni Arcua Minnawi was the only one of three rebel negotiating groups to sign a May 2006 peace deal with Khartoum and became part of the government.

“Bodies are still lying around the town as this statement is written,” the statement by SLA Minnawi’s military spokesman Mohamed Hamid Dirbeen said.

“Some of the victims looked like they had been executed,” it said of the attack on Monday.

Reports from the town said the market and many houses were burnt after army vehicles tore through.

AU force commander Martin Luther Agwai, who will also command a 26,000-strong joint UN-AU force due to take over from the AU, had earlier said government planes bombed the town.

He later said his troops had mistaken heavy artillery for aerial bombardment and said although Antonov planes were flying overhead during the attack, they had not released bombs.

“There was no evidence that bombs were dropped,” he said.

“But the planes were flying overhead.”

Rebels, however, say government planes did drop bombs. The Sudanese army was not immediately available to comment.

Some analysts have suggested a recent surge in violence in Darfur is an effort by warring parties to gain land before AU-UN mediated peace talks in Libya this month. Others said the government might be trying to drive rebels away from the peace process.

Agwai said it was not yet clear what was behind the fighting in Muhajiriya, but initial reports indicated it could be tribal rivalries or a spillover from government clashes with other rebel factions.

He added civilians converged on the nearby AU base for safety. His troops treated about two dozen injured civilians and combatants but did not allow them to enter the base.

Muhajiriya, which is home to about 5,000 residents, also hosts more than 44,500 Darfuris displaced by violence elsewhere.

Agwai called for calm ahead of the Oct 27 peace talks. “It is sad that as we are looking forward to Libya that people have engaged themselves in this activity causing destruction and loss of lives,” Agwai said.

Minnawi’s group called the attack a “stab in the back of the Darfur peace agreement”.—Reuters