Israeli, British, US experts lifted out of embattled East Sudan

Israel has imposed a blackout on the evacuation of its citizens, including military and intelligence experts, from the world’s newest state, South Sudan, which is being torn apart by a bloody conflict between President Salva Kir and his Dinka tribe and the Nuer ethnic group of his ousted deputy Riek Machar. It is not known whether Israel sent a plane to Juba to evacuate its citizens or they were lifted out together with US and British nationals Wednesday. Kir accuses Machar of attempting a coup which set off the fighting Sunday, since when at least 500 people, most of them soldiers, have died. Other tribes are being drawn into the conflict, transferring their loyalties from side to side. Thursday, it was reported that Bor, 200 km north of Juba, had fallen to the rebels, who are rallying now for an assault on the capital.