Rebels Withdraw from Sudan Railway Town

Sudanese rebels on Monday said they had withdrawn from a railway town they briefly occupied before the government launched air strikes.

The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) early on Sunday entered Abu Zabad, a small community near South Kordofan, a state where rebels have been fighting for two years.

Later in the day they pulled out "because the government started air strikes", JEM spokesman Gibril Adam Bilal told Agence France Presse.

A local resident reported aircraft including helicopters in the area before nightfall.

A second resident said he heard the sound of an aircraft on Sunday, and distant explosions.

"Today life in Abu Zabad is normal," the first resident said. "But there are bullet holes in the walls of shops at the main market."

Residents said the rebels, who arrived firing their guns in the air, had targeted a small army facility and police station in the town.

Sudan's army spokesman, Sawarmi Khaled Saad, said JEM wanted to loot fuel and food from the market. He said the military repulsed their attack and killed the rebel commander.

JEM said it killed two government troops.

Abu Zabad is about 150 kilometers (90 miles) southwest of the North Kordofan capital El Obeid and just over the border from South Kordofan, where the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) is active.

SPLA-N and JEM belong to a rebel alliance aiming to topple the Khartoum regime and instal a government more representative of the country's diversity.

The military says it is beginning an operation to crush the insurgents.