One of Ours

Sudan has ordered the removal of Syrian missiles and weapons of mass destruction out of Sudan.

Arab diplomatic and Sudanese government sources including the Sudanese Defense Ministry and Interior Ministry have confirmed a report earlier this month that Syria has been secretly flying Scud C and Scud D medium-range ballistic missiles and WMD chemical weapons components to warehouses in Khartoum since at least January 2004. The sources said the Syrian shipments to Khartoum were placed on civilian airliners but authorized and directed by the Defense Ministry. It is not yet clear if the weapons were part of Syria's WMD programs or components reportedly smuggled from Iraq to Syria prior to the coalition war.

Intelligence sources reportedly told Middle East Newsline that the Sudanese regime of President Omar Bashir was not informed of the Syrian missile and WMD shipments. They said the Syrian material was sent to Khartoum as part of the increased trade relations between the two countries and processed and stored by Sudanese companies.

Now the regime of Sudanese President Omar Bashir has ordered that Syria remove the weapons.

The sources said the Bashir regime has been alarmed over the prospect that the United States would discover the Syrian arsenal and conclude that Damascus and Khartoum were cooperating in the area of missiles and WMD. They said this would have delayed or dashed U.S. plans to lift sanctions from Sudan.

The Sudan Arab-islamist military dictatorship has previously secretly received large aresenals of chemical and biological weapons from Saddam Hussein's Iraq during the era of UN inspections, when that country was under pressure to disarm. Those weapons were then used in the south of Sudan wiping out entire villages to "mystery" causes.

A U.S. official confirmed the Syrian missile shipments to Sudan.