Sudanese military leaders killed in plane crash
Sudan's deputy defence minister and 13 other high-ranking military officers have been killed in a plane crash in southern Sudan.
Colonel Ibrahim Shamsul-Din and the others had been touring a southern military area and were headed back to Khartoum at the time of the crash.
Col Shamsul-Din had backed the coup in which Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir's took power in 1989.
The dead included another colonel, nine lieutenant generals and three brigadier generals.
The accident took place in Adaril, in an oil-rich area some 468 miles south of Khartoum, said radio reports. The cause of the early morning crash has not been announced.
The blow to Sudan's military hierarchy comes at a time the country is believed to be using its newfound oil wealth to take the upper hand against southern rebels.
The conflict between Sudan's Islamic government in the north and rebels fighting for increased autonomy in the predominantly Christian and animist south has killed nearly two million people.
