Sudan Rebels Say They Attacked Blue Nile Army Garrison

Sudanese rebels said on Sunday they had launched a "lightning" assault on a government garrison in the conflict-hit Blue Nile region, with the army saying the attack was repulsed.

Sudan People's Liberation Army-North forces "carried out a lightning attack on al-Gabanit garrison" on Saturday some 45 kilometers (28 miles) southwest of Blue Nile state capital Ed Damazin, spokesman Arnu Lodi said.

Eight soldiers were killed and four SPLA-N fighters were lightly wounded in the attack, Lodi said in a statement, adding that government forces retreated.

Sudan's military gave a different version of events, saying the SPLA-N attacked only an outpost at the garrison.

"They did not attack the garrison but a small external site by opening fire, and nobody was wounded," army spokesman Colonel Al-Sawarmy Khaled Saad told Agence France-Presse.

"The armed forces sent out a force that pursued them and expelled them," Saad said, adding that the area was under government control.

The southern Blue Nile state and South Kordofan areas have been wracked by an insurgency since 2011, when rebels mounted a campaign against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government, complaining they were being marginalized.