Sudan blames Israel for fatal air strike on car, reserves right to react

Sudan accused Israel of launching a missile strike that killed two people near its main port city.

"This is absolutely an Israeli attack," Foreign Minister Ali Karti told reporters on the strike that demolished a car and killed its two passengers near Port Sudan on Tuesday. "Sudan reserves its right to react."

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor declined to comment on the accusation.

Karti accused the Israeli enemy of undertaking the attack in a bid to scupper Sudan's chances of being removed from the US so-called “terror list” and portray Sudan negatively.

One of the two people killed in the strike was a Sudanese citizen who had no ties to the government and it was not clear why his car was targeted, he said. He did not provide any details about the second person killed.

Osman Merghani, editor-in-chief of the independent al-Tayyar paper in Khartoum, said the strike appeared to be one Israel had the capability to execute and that the target was likely to be a weapons trafficker for Hamas who used Sudan's east. "It's very serious for the government because now Sudan is getting into the domain of the 'terror' region," he said, referring to neighboring states. "They have to get some help from within the Middle East region to stop this because if they get help from outside the region they could themselves be targeted by the terrorists," Merghani said.