CAIRO, Feb 1 (IslamOnline) - Sudanese opposition members fighting the government in Khartoum repeated on Wednesday claims they attacked Sudan's pivotal oil fields around Bentiu, in spite of official denials from Khartoum.
The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) said that it confirms "our forces of Western Upper Nile [WUN] Command, under the overall operational command of Commander Peter Gadet have scored major military success over the enemy around the oil fields in Bentiu county, Upper Nile region."
There was no immediate reaction from the Khartoum government, which had earlier denied the allegations.
The opposition said that they carried out that the attacks on January 25th, saying they attacked three Government of Sudan (GOS) army garrisons between Toma South and Wangkai on the newly built highway between Mayom town and Heglig, the main center for oil exploitation in Western Upper Nile.
The opposition claimed that eighty soldiers and their allied militias were killed in three battles and more were wounded. It also said that the government in Khartoum lost oil-digging equipment as well.
"One drilling rig was destroyed and three oil wells were set ablaze. As of now, the wells are still burning," the press release obtained by IslamOnline in Cairo said.
The SPLA has been fighting a 17-year civil war against the government under the umbrella of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
The Sudanese government said Sunday its troops drove back an attack by the SPLA in the southern oil region and denied claims that oil production facilities had been destroyed.
Armed Forces spokesman General Mohammed Osman Yassin told the state-run SUNA news agency that his troops withstood the "failed attack" by the SPLA Friday night east of Mayom in Unity State.
He described SPLA claims that they attacked oil production areas as "media propaganda aimed at raising rebel morale and earning sympathy of foreign supporters."
Yassin said the attack was launched in a new oil survey area outside the production areas which are "fully stable with roads, hospitals and schools being built and civilians fleeing the rebel tanks and fighting alongside the government troops."
The SPLA considers oil installations legitimate targets because oil revenues are used to finance the government's campaign against the southern separatists, which western experts say costs as much as $1 million a day.
Sudan has been engulfed in a civil war since 1983 pitting the Arab and Muslim north against the largely Christian and animist south.
Sudan started exporting oil in August 1999, through a pipeline linking Heiglig to the Red Sea terminal of Beshair.
