KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's army clashed with Darfur rebels for a third time in a week on Friday, a day after U.N. envoys criticised Khartoum for launching attacks on the insurgent force, peacekeepers said.
Government soldiers exchanged fire with the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) loyal to Minni Acrua Minnawi in the south Darfur village of Khor Abeche for more than two hours in the afternoon, the region's joint U.N./African Union UNAMID peacekeepers said.
Minnawi was the only rebel leader to sign a 2006 peace deal with the government but the army declared him a military target this month, accusing him of breaking a cease-fire.
The latest series of clashes with his troops has dealt a hammer blow to the 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement, the last substantial internationally brokered accord in the 7-year conflict.
"SAF (Sudan's Armed Forces) went to Khor Abeche. There were SLM Minni Minnawi elements there and a firefight ensued ... The fighting was intense," UNAMID spokesman Kemal Saiki said.
UNAMID said there had been an unknown number of casualties and civilians had taken shelter at a nearby peacekeeping base.
No one was immediately available to comment from Sudan's army.
Sudan's army attacked Minnawi's forces in Khor Abeche, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of the capital of south Darfur, Nyala, last Friday and Saturday, killing at least one person, burning houses and forcing hundreds to flee, UNAMID reported.
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said on Thursday she strongly condemned the attacks.
"We have heard deeply disturbing reports of Sudanese armed forces blocking the movement of civilians, then looting and burning the village. These reports deserve the council's serious attention and effective responses by UNAMID," she told the Security Council.
Minnawi became a presidential assistant after signing the internationally brokered accord in the Nigerian capital Abuja in May 2006. The deal was boycotted by Darfur's two other main rebels forces and did nothing to end the fighting and banditry in the remote western region.
After elections in April Minnawi was not re-appointed to the presidential post, technically the fourth most senior position in the country. He has moved to the capital of south Sudan, Juba.
Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in Darfur in 2003, accusing the Khartoum government of neglecting the region. Khartoum set out to crush the rebellion with troops and mostly Arab militias, unleashing a wave of violence that Washington and some activists call genocide.
Khartoum has been holding protracted peace talks in Qatar with the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), an umbrella groups of smaller Darfur rebel factions.
(Reporting by Andrew Heavens)
