By William Tucker
An explosion at an armament and munitions plant occurred in Sudan on October 24 government officials have stated. It did not take long for the government to put the blame for the Yarmouk arms factory’s destruction on Israel. In fact, Culture and Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman was quite specific by claiming the plant was struck by four “radar-evading” Israeli aircraft. It is impossible to state for certain that Israel was involved in any way with the events at Yarmouk and it is possible that this was an industrial accident. Keep in mind that Sudan has been involved in smuggling weapons for Middle East militant groups for several decades and it is certainly conceivable that Israel was concerned enough to want to stem the flow. Case in point, over 40 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza on the night of the 23rd. Furthermore, large militant groups such as al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, with help from Iran, have run training camps in Sudan in the not too distant past. Hamas is no stranger to working in Sudan either.
Israel has been the prime suspect behind several airstrikes in Sudan in the recent past. In 2009, a large convoy traveling to Port Sudan was struck and destroyed by unidentified aircraft. Two years later in April 2011, two suspected militants were killed while traveling in a vehicle also near Port Sudan. The events regarding the 2009 airstrike were perhaps the more interesting of the two events. In February 2010, shortly after the 2009 airstrike, I wrote an article on the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the Hamas arms smuggler who worked with Iran in moving arms into Gaza. The following is an excerpt from that article.
“Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was a co-founder of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and was currently serving as senior commander in charge of armaments. One of his recent claims to fame was orchestrating the movement of armaments and munitions from Iran, through Sudan to the Siani Peninsula, and finally through underground tunnels into the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. The Israelis, finally wise to this new method of arms smuggling, launched an airstrike on March 26, 2009 against an arms convoy in Northern Sudan thus disrupting any further use of these transit points. For the Israelis this was incredibly important. After Operation Cast Lead, Israel wanted to prevent any chance Hamas had at rearming and threatening Israeli civilians in the future. This effort against arms smuggling has had a good success rate and has kept Hamas silent. The next logical step would be to remove the arms smuggler, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.”
Destroying a munitions plant does serve a purpose, albeit a limited one. After all, plants can be rebuilt and arms can be procured elsewhere. For Israel, if they were indeed involved, the destruction of the plant helps to temporarily alleviate pressure on other fronts. The civil war in Syria has been slowly turning against the ruling regime, and Assad is looking to exacerbate regional tensions to complicate the situation. The recent car bombing in Lebanon, which killed a prominent politician, has sparked unrest throughout the country. Likewise, militant groups Hezbollah, Hamas, and several less prominent groups are increasing their activities across the region. For its part, Israel is trying to prevent the need to use significant military force on any single front. There is speculation that Israel may take military action against Gaza because of the increase in rocket fire. While that may eventually occur, Israel would much rather delay that type of action in the short term. Striking a munitions plant in Sudan that may have been used to provide arms to militant groups is one such way to buy time. Risky, to be sure, but much better than the alternatives for the time being.
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