Sudan's Omar al-Bashir steps up war rhetoric against South Sudan

(CBS/AP) JUBA, South Sudan - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir stepped up his war-like rhetoric against South Sudan Thursday, as fighting between the two countries reportedly intensified.

Al-Bashir said in an address to a "popular defense" brigade headed to the disputed Heglig area that "Sudan will cut off the hand that harms it."

The capture of Heglig by the South Sudanese "has revived the spirit of jihad and martyrdom among the Sudanese people," he told the brigade's 2,300 men, according to the official Sudan News Agency.

On Wednesday, al-Bashir threatened to "liberate" South Sudan from its government after accusing the south of trying to take down his Khartoum-based government.

Al-Bashir is a career army officer who fought against the southern army, the Sudan People's Liberation Army, during the 1983-2005 civil war. Al-Bashir seized power in a 1989 military coup.

Amid al-Bashir's harsh rhetoric, the Arab League said Thursday it would hold an emergency meeting over the increasing violence between Sudan and South Sudan.

South Sudan said it had repulsed four attacks from Sudan over a 24-hour period as fighting on the border showed no signs of slowing.

Acting on a request by Sudan, the Arab League scheduled an emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo next week to discuss the violence, Deputy Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed bin Helli said. The league earlier called on South Sudan to withdraw from the oil-rich Heglig area that southern troops invaded and took over last week.

Despite the threats from Sudan, a southern government spokesman said South Sudan was only defending its territory and considers Sudan a "friendly nation."

South Sudan military spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said three of the attacks were on Wednesday and one was on Thursday. He did not give a death toll.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan last year after a self-determination vote for independence. That vote was guaranteed in a mediated end to decades of civil war between the two sides. But the sides never fully agreed where their shared border lay, nor did they reach agreement on how to share oil wealth that is pumped from the border region.

Instead, the two countries have seen a sharp increase in violence in recent weeks, especially around the oil-producing town of Heglig. Both sides claim Heglig as their own. It lies in a region where the border was never clearly defined.

Aguer said southern troops repulsed one attack by Sudanese troops near Heglig on Wednesday and two attacks in Northern Bahr el Ghazal state. One was repulsed in Western Bahr el Ghazal state early Thursday, he said.

In Khartoum, the pro-government Sudanese Media Center said late Wednesday that fighting broke out between the two nations in the Al-Meram area in South Kordofan, with northern troops driving away what it called "remaining elements" of the SPLA. It said northern troops chased away SPLA fighters who fled across the border into South Sudan.

It said the fighting left an unspecified number of dead and wounded among the SPLA forces but gave no precise figures.

South Sudan government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin said South Sudan does not consider itself at war with Sudan, but he said the south is defending territory it believes it owns based on borders outlined in 1956 by British colonialists.

"Up to now we have not crossed even an inch into Sudan," Benjamin said. He added: "The Republic of South Sudan considers the Republic of Sudan to be a neighbor and a friendly nation."

Benjamin said that southern forces would withdraw from Heglig if the African Union guarantees a cessation of hostilities, an agreement on border demarcation, and the withdrawal of Sudanese forces from the nearby border region of Abyei, with Ethiopian troops moving in as peacekeepers.

Benjamin said that al-Bashir is carrying out "genocide" against Sudanese people in the Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions of Sudan. He said al-Bashir's words Wednesday were a warning that he would like to do the same in South Sudan.

"Can they quote one war fought by the Republic of Sudan fought with any foreign country? They have always used their military artillery to kill the innocent people of Sudan as well as South Sudan," Benjamin said.

The International Crisis Group said in a new analysis on Thursday that Sudan and South Sudan are "teetering on the brink of all-out war from which neither would benefit." It said an immediate cease-fire is needed, then solutions to the unresolved post-referendum issues.

"Increasingly angry rhetoric, support for each other's rebels, poor command and control, and brinkmanship, risk escalating limited and contained conflict into a full-scale confrontation," the group said. "Diplomatic pressure to cease hostilities and return to negotiations must be exerted on both governments by the region and the United Nations Security Council, as well as such partners as the U.S., China and key Gulf states."

The U.S. played a large role in brokering the 2005 peace accord between the two sides. China is a big player in the two countries' oil industry.