NAIROBI, Kenya - Darfur rebels from western Sudan took their five-year struggle to the doorstep of their country's capital Saturday, engaging government forces in gunbattles on the outskirts of Khartoum.
The offensive by the Justice and Equality Movement, one of the main Darfur rebel groups, was not thought to represent a serious threat to Sudan's government, but the fact that fighters got so close to Khartoum was seen as a political embarrassment that might encourage other anti-government groups to rise up.
By Saturday night, government officials had imposed a citywide curfew but said the rebels had been defeated. State television showed pictures of burned-out trucks and bodies, reportedly of rebel forces.
A Justice and Equality Movement leader insisted its forces would continue to fight to overthrow the Khartoum regime and said they were receiving support from other opposition militias in various parts of the country.
In a telephone interview from London, Tahir Elfaki, head of the group's legislative council, said the attack on Khartoum was designed to bring Darfur's suffering to the heart of Sudan's government.
Experts questioned whether JEM forces could infiltrate the well-protected capital and take on Sudanese security forces.
"It looks like a suicide mission to me," Safwat Fanous, a political scientist at the University of Khartoum, said in a telephone interview. "If they need food or weapons, they are 1,000 kilometers away from their base in Darfur. They don't have any air support. They don't even have tanks, just armed Land Cruisers."
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