The Sudanese air force is avoiding targeting civilians but will not allow rebels to hide behind "human shields," Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said in remarks published Wednesday.
"The use of air power will continue against the rebels wherever they are and we will take care to avoid civilians," Ismail said in an interview with the Egyptian government news weekly Al-Mussawar.
Air strikes by government forces "are not targeting civilians but the government will not allow the rebel movement to use civilians as human shields," Ismail said.
"The government cannot yield to such plans," he added.
Sudan's Muslim-Arab government in Khartoum, which has come under frequent charges from the United States and others for targeting civilians, has been fighting a civil war against African rebels in the south since 1983 -- CAIRO (AFP)
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