By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese forces hunted for suspectedDarfur rebels in Khartoum on Monday after an unprecedentedrebel attack at the weekend and detained Islamist oppositionleader Hassan al-Turabi before releasing him.
Bursts of gunfire kept Khartoum on edge. It was the firsttime fighting had reached the capital in decades of conflictbetween the traditionally Arab-dominated central government andrebels from far-flung regions in the oil-producing country.
Darfur rebel leader Khalil Ibrahim told Reuters he wouldkeep up attacks until President Omar Hassan al-Bashir'sgovernment fell. About 65 people were believed to have beenkilled in the attack that began on Saturday.
"This is just the start of a process and the end is thetermination of this regime," Ibrahim, of the Justice andEquality Movement (JEM), said by satellite phone. "Don't expectjust one more attack."
Sudan accuses neighbouring Chad of backing the rebels andbroke off diplomatic ties with its neighbour on Sunday. Chad'sgovernment said on Monday it was closing its border with Sudan.
Chad has denied involvement but political analysts say itmay have backed the JEM in retaliation for an attack on theChadian capital three months ago by rebels it said weresupported by the Sudanese government.
Exchanges of fire could be heard on the outskirts ofOmdurman, across the Nile from the heart of Khartoum and wherefighting raged at the weekend. A shooting incident in centralKhartoum sent workers fleeing in panic.
An Interior Ministry official said some rebels were stillholed up in parts of Omdurman and a curfew there was extendedindefinitely.
Abdel Majid Abdel Farid, a local official, told Reutersfrom the neighbouring Kordofan state that Sudan's army hadengaged JEM rebels about three hours drive outside Omdurman.
"There are civilian casualties," he said, adding woundedwere arriving in his town of Hamrat al-Wizz.
JEM denied there were any clashes. "We know that Khartoumhas sent Chadian rebels to the area from Darfur but we have notengaged them yet," al-Tahir al-Feki, a senior JEM official,told Reuters by satellite phone.
Al-Tahir al-Feki, a senior JEM leader, told Reuters byphone: "We have forces in those areas and we understand thatsome of the Chadian rebels that have been recruited by theSudan government, they were sent from El-Fasher to meet some ofour forces in those areas and there has been some clashes. Butwe will drive them back for sure."
RELEASED WITHOUT CHARGE
Opposition leader Turabi, who said a rebel attack onKhartoum could improve prospects for peace in Darfur, and atleast four other top members of his Popular Congress Party(PCP) were detained and held for 12 hours. They were releasedwithout charge, his daughter said.
"This ... actually looks quite promising as everyone willhave to behave rationally and engage in a political process forDarfur, for neighbourly relations and moving towards electionsthat would engage all political parties," Turabi, who was onceclose to Osama bin Laden, told Reuters after his release.
Presidential adviser Ghazi Atabani Salahadin told ReutersTurabi's arrest was part of an investigation into possibleinside help received by the rebels.
"I'm not sure if they found any evidence ... It was apre-emptive thing to see if there was any help provided frominside," he said.
The JEM, one of several Darfur rebel groups, has anIslamist agenda and some of its leaders were allies of Turabiin the past, but he denies backing the rebels.
Mutrif Siddig, under-secretary at the Foreign Ministry,said the government was ready for further attacks. He said hedoubted Ibrahim's assertion that he was still in Omdurman.
"We have some lessons learned and we will be betterprepared if he dares to do so," he said.
The rebels made a lightning advance across 600 km (400miles) of desert and scrub from the western Darfur region toattack Khartoum on Saturday in what one of their leaders calleda bid for power.
A peace deal between north and south ended one civil war in2005 and boosted Sudan's economy by increasing oil productionin the south, but that agreement did not cover the conflictthat erupted in Darfur five years ago.
(Editing by Andrew Dobbie)
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