CAIRO, April 9. /TASS/. Two soldiers and a law enforcement agent were killed in an exchange of gunfire that had broken out on Tuesday near the army headquarters in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, the Sky News Arabia TV channel reports.
According to the information available, the unrest erupted when the Interior Ministry’s SWAT teams tried to disperse rioters near the military headquarters using tear gas and firing into the air. The army had earlier declared that they would not allow anyone to disperse the protesters with force and intervened to take their side. The soldiers opened the gates and started letting the rioters in.
The shootout between the soldiers and the SWAT teams followed and left several people dead. It is reported that a fire broke out on the headquarters’ premises, however, according to other sources, it was a nearby mosque that caught fire. The Alhadath TV channel cites a local medical service reporting two people dead. Nevertheless, it is not specified whether it was soldiers and law enforcement agents or protesters.
Earlier, it was reported that eight people had fallen victim to the riots since Saturday, when tens of thousands citizens of Khartoum started a broad protest which by Sunday had morphed into a sit-in near the army command center. At the crack of dawn on Monday, the police and agents of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service attempted to forcefully disperse the rioters using tear gas, however, for the first time since the protests began in December last year, the army intervened and prevented the use of force.
As an army headquarters representative told the Alhadath TV channel on Tuesday, the army will fend off any violence against the protesters on the grounds that the sit-in can only be stopped by peaceful means. Moreover, he confirmed that the army "is loyal to President Omar al-Bashir as the Commander-in-Chief" and "is not holding discussions with any political forces."