Sudanese jets attack oil pipeline

An oil pipeline has been attacked, apparently by Sudanese fighter jets, in the latest outbreak of violence on the volatile border between Sudan and South Sudan.AlJazeera’s Nazanine Moshiri witnessed Wednesday’s air raids that took place near the town of Heglig, in a contested oil-rich area that saw heavy fighting during the Sudanese civil war.“We were interviewing the South Sudanese minister of oil who is here assessing the situation and we actually came under attack by what looked like MiG’s [fighters jets] belonging to the Khartoum government and also Antonov planes high above,” she said. “We were forced to run into trenches.”There were no reports of casualties or damage after the raids, our correspondent said.South Sudanese forces responded with anti-aircraft fire, prompting claims that one of the fighter jets had been shot down, Moshiri said.Speaking to AlJazeera, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, South Sudan’s information minister, confirmed the air raids and said the fighter, including the pilot, was “burnt beyond recognition”.“Today at 3:00pm South Sudan local time, a MiG-29 fighter was on a bombing raid in the area. And the SPLA defence unit was able to shoot it down,” Benjamin said.“So there is concrete evidence of what we have been saying: that we are under continuous attack from the Republic of Sudan, both by air as well as from the ground.”Colonel Khaled Saad Alsawarmi, a spokesman of the Sudanese army, denied Sudan’s involvement in the attack.“Reports of the warplane shot down are a fabricated lie. No fighting took place today, and even when there were battles previously, the Sudanese army doesn’t use planes, just artillery and that is after the South Sudanese army attacks first.”Heglig is situated within the Muglad Basin, a rift basin which contains much of Sudan’s proven oil reserves.During Sudan’s civil war, the South Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels attacked the oil rigs of Heglig to limit the oil revenue for the Sudanese government.Tension has been growing in the area in recent weeks, as South Sudan, which gained independence last year, and Sudan continue their dispute over oil fields and control of other areas.