Sudanese defense minister: At least 200 dead in rebel assault on Khartoum

Sudan's official news agency has quoted the defense minister as saying that more than 200 people were killed in a rebel assault on the capital. Sudanese Defense Minister General Abdul Rahim Mohammed Hussein has told parliament Tuesday that 93 soldiers and 13 policemen were killed repelling Saturday's unprecedented assault by rebels from Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement. Another 30 civilians died in the fighting, he said. Some 90 bodies from rebels were found, but so many more were scattered around Khartoum's twin city of Omdurman were the fighting took place that an exact count was not possible, the minister added. The comments were the first official estimates of casualties in an attack that shocked the country.