Artillery shelling targets biggest town in Sudan's Darfur

El-Fasher, the biggest town in Sudan's Darfur region, was targeted Saturday by armillary shelling believed to be launched by rebels, Sudan's Ashrouq net reported. The shelling caused explosions in the western part of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State, and spread panic among the citizens without casualties, the report said. "The explosions resulted from rockets fired from Shaqra area, some 30 kms west of the town," Ashrouq quoted a military source as saying. "Two rockets have been fired from that area towards the town. One fell to the south and the other to the north, without any loss, " added the source. In the meantime, the director of El-Fasher airport denied that the airport was bombarded, affirming that the aviation movement at the airport was normal, according to Ashrouq net. The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)/Minni Minnawi faction has claimed in a statement published on the internet the responsibility for firing several rockets at vital areas in El Fasher town. Violence escalated in the Darfur region during the past two months. The United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has expressed concerns over the mounting violence in the region and urged the conflicting parties to avoid whatever might threaten the fragile peace in the restive region. Three Darfur rebel groups -- the Justice and Equality Movement, the SLA/Minni Minnawi faction, and the SLA/Abdul-Wahid Mohamed Nur faction -- have been fighting the central government in Khartoum since 2003. The three groups are rejecting the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, signed in June 2011 between the Sudanese government and the Darfur Liberation and Justice Movement under the auspices of Qatar.