Sudan's deputy defense minister, 13 high-ranking military officers and a corporal were killed today when their plane crashed in bad weather at an airport in southern Sudan, official sources said.
"The accident was caused by bad weather which made the plane veer off the runway (at Adaryel airport) and hit a building," the presidential palace said in a statement read on state television.
Adaryel is an oil-producing town in Upper Nile state, more than 700 kilometers (420 miles) south of Khartoum, and is outside areas which the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels say they control.
The SPLA said earlier from Nairobi that it was not responsible for the crash, but speculated it may have been caused by rival Islamist groups in Khartoum.
The crash was a blow to the Islamist government because, diplomats say, the deputy defense minister, Colonel Ibrahim Shams Eddin, spent most of his time in the south or east orchestrating the war against the rebels.
Col Shams Eddin was also a member of the Revolutionary Council which led the 1989 military coup that brought Islamist General Omar al-Beshir to power.
In addition to the deputy minister, the dead were listed as a general, seven lieutenant generals, three brigadier generals, a lieutenant colonel, a colonel, and a corporal.
AFP