CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s security forces killed four suspected Islamic State group militants in lengthy raids on their hideouts Monday in the capital, in an operation that also left one military officer dead, officials said.
The raids took place in the same Gabra neighborhood in southern Khartoum where five intelligence officers were killed in a shootout with suspected IS militants last week.
The General Intelligence Agency said in a statement that forces detained four other suspected militants in two hideouts. The militants opened fire on forces using Kalashnikov rifles, RPGs and grenades, it said.
The statement said the clashes also wounded three other offices, including two from the GIA and one from police.
The GIA said its forces also raided a hideout Sunday in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, arresting eight suspected foreign militants.
The agency did not reveal the nationalities of suspects arrested or killed in the raids.
Militant attacks have been rare in Sudan, which hosted Osama bin Laden in the early years of his jihadi movement that led to the creation of al-Qaida.
The latest incidents, however, underscore the fragility of Sudan’s path to democracy, more than two years after the military’s overthrow of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir amid a public uprising against his three-decade rule.
Authorities said last month they foiled a coup attempt that has since increased tensions between the generals and civilians in the joint transitional government.