Gunman Kills 20 in Mosque Near Sudan’s Capital

KHARTOUM, Sudan —  A gunman opened fire in a mosque during prayers Friday night, killing 20 people, before being shot to death by police, state television reported.

The attacker, identified as a member of an Islamic militant group called Takfir wal Hijra, walked into the mosque in the village of Garaffa near Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, and began firing an automatic rifle, the report said.

Police rushed to the Al Sunna al Mohammediyya Mosque and shot the gunman after he refused to surrender, the report said. Twenty worshipers were reported killed and 40 others wounded in the attack.

The television identified the gunman as Abbas Baqer Abbas, a Takfir wal Hijra member from the central region of Al Gezira.

The motive for the attack was not immediately known, but Takfir wal Hijra has been implicated in past attacks on rival Muslim groups in Sudan. In 1994, gunmen from the group killed 16 in an attack on a mosque. Three years later, another mosque attack killed two worshipers.

The group also has clashed with police, including in a 1996 gun battle that left eight dead.

The name Takfir wal Hijra literally means “Repentance and Flight,” referring to flight from the sinful world.

The name was used in Egypt in the early 1970s by a violent offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Since then, the name periodically has been used by groups in other Arab countries.

Egypt’s Middle East News Agency reported that a crowd gathered outside Omdurman University Hospital, where the wounded were admitted, and demanded revenge against the group.