An Ethiopian peacekeeper was killed and two wounded in an ambush on a convoy in which a top tribal leader was killed in the disputed Abyei region between Sudan and South Sudan, the United Nations said late Saturday. UN leader Ban Ki-moon said he "strongly condemns" the killings, but called for efforts to prevent an escalation between the rival countries. A UN peacekeeping convoy was stopped and attacked by Arab Miseriya tribesmen in Abyei on Saturday, UN officials said. Kual Deng Majok, paramount leader of the rival Ngok Dinka tribe, was in the convoy and was killed.

Sudanese insurgents have carried out their first combined attack, a surprise push into a strategic and previously peaceful region, but analysts doubt the rebels' readiness to take Khartoum by force On Saturday, the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel coalition swept through Umm Rawaba, the second-largest town in North Kordofan state, during coordinated attacks on several nearby areas.

Sudanese rebels said they attacked five areas in North and South Kordofan states on Saturday, widening an anti-government offensive in one of their most audacious acts in years. "This is a significant shift in the war in Sudan," Abdel Wahid Mohammed al-Nur, who heads a faction of Darfur's Sudan Liberation Army, told AFP. "We are heading to Khartoum," he said. "This is not a joke." A regional political expert said the attacks were timed to the "failure" of peace talks this week between South Kordofan rebels and the government.

Sudanese rebels said they attacked five areas in North and South Kordofan states on Saturday, widening an anti-government offensive in one of their most audacious acts in years. "This is a significant shift in the war in Sudan," Abdel Wahid Mohammed al-Nur, who heads a faction of Darfur's Sudan Liberation Army, told AFP. "We are heading to Khartoum," he said. "This is not a joke." Residents of Umm Rawaba, the second-largest town in North Kordofan, said rebels arrived Saturday morning on at least 20 vehicles for a brief occupation.