Some 24 people were Tuesday reported to have been killed in a new round of bombing in Sudan's embattled Darfur region, an attack squarely blamed on the government by the head of the African Union (AU) force in the region, according to DPA. The attack on Muhajirya on Monday was the latest in a spate of violence in the embattled region ahead of peace talks in Libya set for October 27. "The town was bombed and only the Sudanese government forces have aircraft," General Martin Luther Agwai, head of the 7,000-member AU force in Darfur, was quoted as saying. The United Nations said the clashes took place between Minnawi's Sudan Liberation Movement - one of the few factions that signed an earlier peace agreement - and a group of tribal militia. The attack follows the almost complete burning down of Haskanita town at the weekend, the site of the killing of 10 AU troops in an incursion last week by what is believed to be a rebel splinter faction. Meanwhile, the head of UN peacekeeping operations Jean Marie Guehenno said in New York Monday that the much-anticipated hybrid UN- AU mission to Darfur lacked air and ground transport capacities. US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said getting the UN force in as soon as possible was essential for ending the violence and moving toward peaceful resolution.
