Darfur rebel leader vows to continue waging war in Sudan

KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Darfur's most-wanted rebel leader vowed Monday to keep up his offensive against the Sudanese government, saying he can exhaust the military by fighting it all across Africa's largest nation.

In a telephone interview, Khalil Ibrahim said the military success of the Justice and Equality Movement is easy to explain. "We are more spread out and we move fast."

The speed of his forces was widely credited with allowing Ibrahim's men to reach the outskirts of Khartoum to launch an attack Saturday without being detected by government troops. They set out from the Darfur and Kordofan regions under cover of night in vehicles similar to those used by the army, racing across the vast arid terrain of central Sudan.

"The government can't keep up with the JEM," Ibrahim said. "It will be exhausted. ... We can move from the north, south, west and east freely."

Ibrahim said he was speaking by phone while on the run in the capital's twin city of Omdurman, where his rebels staged the daring raid. It is the closest that Darfur's rebels have ever gotten to the seat of the government.

"I am still in Omdurman. I am not safe but I am with all my forces," Ibrahim said, disputing government claims that the attackers were crushed. He said reinforcements were on the way. Gunfire could still be heard in Khartoum on Monday morning.

The attack shocked the government, which was pursuing a full-scale manhunt for Ibrahim and cracking down on other opposition figures. Islamist opposition politician Hassan al-Turabi, accused of links to JEM, was detained for questioning Monday but was released without charge.

Ibrahim's movement has emerged as the most effective rebel group in Darfur, where ethnic Africans took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in 2003 to fight discrimination.

Ibrahim declined to explain how his fighters managed to attack a city hundreds of miles from their bases in Darfur, but he claimed to have allies inside Khartoum itself. "I have people inside the army, security and police and students in the university," he said.

His group, unlike other rebel movements in Darfur, has succeeded in expanding its operations out of the war-torn region into the central province of Kordofan, next to the capital.

Ibrahim's close family ties with the powerful Chad-based Zaghwa tribe has bolstered his ranks and military capabilities, especially as relations have declined between Sudan and its western neighbor.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has accused Chad of being behind the weekend attack and warned that his government reserved the right to retaliate.