July 13, 2013 - 10:59 AM
CAIRO - A spokesman says an ambush has killed seven United Nations peacekeepers in the deadliest ever single attack on the international force in Sudan's Darfur region.
U.N. forces spokesman Chris Cycmanick that the unidentified attackers targeted a combined team of soldiers and police officers on Saturday with gunfire and possibly rocket-propelled grenades some 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of the town of Khor Abeche. Cycmanick said another 17 U.N. workers were wounded.
Cycmanick declined to give the nationalities of those killed and wounded in the attack.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the assault.
Sudan's western region of Darfur has been afflicted by violence since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the central government in Khartoum.
The U.N. has had a peacekeeping force there since the beginning of 2008.
News from © The Associated Press, 2013