Sudan Army Spokesman to Asharq Al-Awsat: Stopping the War Hinges on RSF Ending its Rebellion 

Sudanese Army official spokesman, Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Sudanese Army official spokesman, Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
TT

Sudan Army Spokesman to Asharq Al-Awsat: Stopping the War Hinges on RSF Ending its Rebellion 

Sudanese Army official spokesman, Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Sudanese Army official spokesman, Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

As the battles intensified in Khartoum and other areas in Sudan, the Sudanese Army said the condition for stopping the war “depends on ending the rebellion by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).”

Army official spokesman Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat in a phone call from Khartoum of the presence of regional support for what he described as the “rapid support militia”, which does not need “proof or evidence.”

While he stressed that the army would not point to any particular regional party, he noted: “Things are clear as day to us.”

As for the condition for stopping the war, Abdallah said: “From day one, we had called on the rapid support militia to end this adventure, which will only lead to the destruction of the country...”

He added: “Stopping the war requires an end to the rapid support militia’s rebellion.”

Emphasizing the need to unify the army under one leadership, Abdallah vowed that the military would not allow the country to be dragged into civil war.

The army is thwarting any “attempt by the Rapid Support Forces to control the country and power by force and rebel against the state,” he noted.

“We have not relied on air strikes alone, because we know that war is a system of simultaneous actions and a joint effort by the ground, air, and other forces to achieve the military objective,” acknowledging that it was not possible to resort solely to air strikes to resolve any military operation.

Regarding the army’s use of air strikes to decide the battle, the official remarked: “We have not relied on air strikes alone, because we know that war is a system of simultaneous actions and a joint effort by the ground, air, and other forces to achieve the military objective,” acknowledging that it was not possible to resort solely to air strikes to resolve any military operation.

Moreover, the spokesman said the RSF were not controlling the ground, but rather specific areas and certain roads, by using human shields and occupying civilian homes.

He explained that the RSF “cannot directly confront the army’s brigades, just as they know very well that the army cannot storm their positions with tanks as they are in people’s homes and in hospitals... which put the people’s lives at risk.”

“From this point of view, you cannot say that the army is not protecting the civilians. On the contrary, the military is protecting the whole country and all the people by ending the rebellion in a systematic military manner, while respecting military ethics. As for the Rapid Support Forces, they are resorting to systematic looting, theft, rape and destruction of buildings and infrastructure,” Abdallah stated.

He added that the army was doing everything in its power to end the rebellion, but did not set a timeframe for ending the war, which he said was aimed at destroying the country.

“Since the start of the war, the Rapid Support Forces raided all service stations, in a desperate attempt to seize the whole country, but the army responded to that with courage and thwarted the RSF’s objectives...” the spokesman remarked.

He stressed that the army was working to end the rebellion in the shortest time possible to put an end to other party’s objective of destroying the country and plunge it into civil war.

The army will not fall for this conspiracy, he vowed.



Israeli Strikes Damage Hospital in Lebanon

File photo: Destroyed houses that were hit in an Israeli airstrike in Saksakiyeh village, south Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
File photo: Destroyed houses that were hit in an Israeli airstrike in Saksakiyeh village, south Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
TT

Israeli Strikes Damage Hospital in Lebanon

File photo: Destroyed houses that were hit in an Israeli airstrike in Saksakiyeh village, south Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
File photo: Destroyed houses that were hit in an Israeli airstrike in Saksakiyeh village, south Lebanon, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A hospital in the coastal Lebanese city of Tyre was damaged by Israeli airstrikes on nearby buildings that wounded 11 people, the health ministry said on Saturday.

The director of the Lebanese Italian Hospital told the state-run National News Agency (NNA) that it would "remain open to provide the necessary medical care" despite the damage.

Strikes destroyed two buildings nearby, an AFP correspondent saw, shattering windows and causing suspended ceilings to collapse in the hospital, the facility's management said.

A series of attacks hit the Tyre region on Saturday, including one on its port that struck a small boat and damaged others moored nearby, the AFP correspondent said.

Israel has been carrying out strikes across Lebanon and launched a ground invasion in the south after Hezbollah entered the war in the Middle East on the side of its backer Iran on March 2.

Tens of thousands of people have left Tyre, but around 20,000 remain, including 15,000 displaced from surrounding villages, despite Israeli evacuation warnings covering most of the city and a broad swathe of southern Lebanon.

The NNA also reported that Israeli forces abducted a man in Shebaa, near the Israeli border in the east, at around 3:00 am on Saturday.


Indonesia Slams 'Unacceptable' Peacekeeper Casualties in Lebanon

FILE PHOTO: UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher/File Photo
TT

Indonesia Slams 'Unacceptable' Peacekeeper Casualties in Lebanon

FILE PHOTO: UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. REUTERS/Karamallah Daher/File Photo

The Indonesian government on Saturday slammed as "unacceptable" an explosion that injured three of its peacekeepers in Lebanon within days of three other blue helmets from the Southeast Asian nation being killed.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said three peacekeepers were wounded in a blast that occurred inside a UN facility near Adaisseh on Friday afternoon, and rushed to hospital.

Two were seriously wounded.

The UN Information Center in Jakarta said the "origin of the explosion" was unknown but identified the injured soldiers as Indonesian.

"Repeated attacks or incidents of this kind are unacceptable," the Indonesian foreign ministry said in a statement.

"Regardless of their cause, these events underscore the urgent need to strengthen protection for UN peacekeeping forces amid an increasingly dangerous conflict situation."

The government urged the UN Security Council to investigate the events and "to immediately convene a meeting of troop-contributing countries to UNIFIL to conduct a review and take measures to enhance the protection of personnel serving with UNIFIL".

Friday's incident came just days after an Indonesian peacekeeper died when a projectile exploded on March 29 in southern Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah have been fighting since Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war.

A UN security source told AFP on condition of anonymity Tuesday that fire from an Israeli tank was responsible for that attack.

A day later, two more Indonesian peacekeepers died after an explosion struck a UNIFIL logistics convoy, also in southern Lebanon.

The father of one of the two fallen soldiers, 33-year-old Zulmi Aditya Iskandar, said this week he was shocked that peacekeepers were losing their lives in the conflict.

"We were really sad and regretful, because this is a UN troop, a peacekeeping troop, not deployed for war," 60-year-old Iskandarudin told reporters at his house in West Java province.

The bodies of the three peacekeepers are scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Saturday evening, according to the military.

The Indonesian National Armed Forces has said it will deploy more than 750 personnel to Lebanon next month as part of the scheduled UNIFIL peacekeeping troop rotation.


Strike Kills One Iraqi Fighter near Syria Border

Mourners attend the funeral of members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi, who were killed in an airstrike in the town of al‑Qaim near the Syrian border, amid heightened regional tensions due to the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Baghdad, Iraq, March 12, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Mourners attend the funeral of members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi, who were killed in an airstrike in the town of al‑Qaim near the Syrian border, amid heightened regional tensions due to the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Baghdad, Iraq, March 12, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
TT

Strike Kills One Iraqi Fighter near Syria Border

Mourners attend the funeral of members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi, who were killed in an airstrike in the town of al‑Qaim near the Syrian border, amid heightened regional tensions due to the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Baghdad, Iraq, March 12, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Mourners attend the funeral of members of Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi, who were killed in an airstrike in the town of al‑Qaim near the Syrian border, amid heightened regional tensions due to the US-Israel conflict with Iran, in Baghdad, Iraq, March 12, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

An attack killed one fighter from the former paramilitary coalition Hashed al-Shaabi on Saturday, the alliance said, blaming the US and Israel.

Iraq has been dragged into the war between the United States, Israel and Iran, with strikes targeting both US interests and pro-Iran groups in the country, reported AFP.

"This treacherous attack resulted in the martyrdom of one PMF fighter and the wounding of four others, as well as a member of the ministry of defense," said a short statement from the group, which is also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), adding it was a "Zionist-American attack".

The PMF is a coalition of armed groups -- formed in 2014 to fight extremists-- that is now part of Iraq's regular army, but also contains pro-Iran factions who have a reputation for acting independently.

PMF positions have been repeatedly targeted since the outbreak of war, with the group consistently blaming the attacks on the US and Israel.

According to the group's statement, the latest attack targeted a position in western Anbar province of the 45th Brigade, which belongs to the US-blacklisted, pro-Iran Kataeb Hezbollah group.

Kataeb Hezbollah is part of the umbrella movement known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which has been claiming daily attacks since the start of the war on US interests in Iraq and the region.

The Pentagon has said helicopters have carried out strikes against pro-Iran armed groups in Iraq during the war.

Washington has strongly denied claims it has targeted Iraqi security forces.