Attacker killed in Khartoum

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his ministers found themselves elsewhere at the time of Saturday's attack, said his press secretary, Emad Ahmed. The president, who took power in a 1989 coup, has a separate residence near the military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum. Ahmed said security forces had already started to investigate the attack.

Witnesses told AFP that they heard shooting coming from the palace at about 12:30 p.m. (0930 UTC). Army spokesman Colonel Al-Sawarmi Khalid said the attacker had arrived at the presidential palace's gate with a knife, which he used to stab a sentry. The man then grabbed a gun and opened fire, killing the wounded guard and one other before nearby soldiers shot him dead.

In a statement, Khalid named the dead man as Salah Kafi Quwa, originally from the town of Kadugli in the southern Kordofan province, where there has been an insurgency. Separately, the president's office also called the attacker mentally ill, but gave no further details.

"All investigations show that he is mentally unstable," Khalid said. "He has no political affiliation and is uneducated. There were no repercussions to the attack and no subsequent gatherings outside the palace. Police were deployed to prevent any impact or disturbance."

Last month Bashir's National Congress Party announced that the 70-year-old president, wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes charges in Darfur, would stand for re-election in 2015. In May, a Sudanese opposition leader was arrested.

mkg/ (Reuters, AFP, AP)