20120421
AFP
Sudanese poured into the streets of Khartoum in jubilation on Friday after the defence minister said troops retook the oil town of Heglig from South Sudanese forces.

Flags waved and whistles blew in one of the biggest celebrations the capital has seen in years.

Thousands gathered outside military headquarters where President Omar al-Bashir proclaimed: "We beat them".

"Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest) many shouted, according to an AFP reporter at the scene, and footage shown on state television.

"One people, one army", they called, while another slogan urged troops to head to Juba, the South Sudanese capital.

Soldiers raised their rifles in celebration, and one person held a Koran aloft.

Nearby streets were clogged with traffic. Motorists, their lights flashing, drove honking throughout the city to mark the occasion.

"We will kill the insect with insect spray," one man told state television.

On Wednesday Bashir had called for the overthrow of the "insect" Juba government.

Border clashes between Sudan and South Sudan escalated last week with waves of air strikes hitting the South, and Juba seizing the Heglig oil hub on April 10.

While the fighting raised fears of a wider war, it also prompted an outburst of nationalist feeling in Sudan, mired in economic crisis since South Sudan separated last July, taking with it about 75 percent of the country's oil production.

"Our troops were able to liberate Heglig town by force, and captured it at 2:20 pm (1120 GMT) today," Defence Minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein announced on state television.

His words answered the Friday prayers of religious leaders who, earlier in the afternoon, described the effort to free Heglig as a holy war, according to witnesses.

"God brings this jihad to Sudanese people because he loves them," the imam at Khartoum's main downtown mosque said, after reading a Koranic verse about holy war.

He said that during the 22-year civil war "jihad," which ended in 2005 and led to the South's independence last July, Sudan's economy had grown.

Since then it has faced many problems, so "I think this is a good thing, God brings jihad again," the imam said, according to an AFP reporter at the mosque.

Since the Heglig invasion, state television had been broadcasting martial music and civil war footage of tanks and smiling soldiers in the bush.

Sudan has not said how many of its soldiers died in the Heglig battle.

It did not allow journalists or other observers into the area, meaning the situation on the ground has been difficult to verify.

While prayers were still being said in Khartoum mosques, South Sudan's President Salva Kiir ordered the immediate withdrawal of his troops from the oil field seized on April 10.

"The Republic of South Sudan announces that the SPLA (Southern army) troops have been ordered to withdraw from Panthou-Heglig," Information Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin said, reading out a presidential statement.

Although South Sudan disputes it, Heglig is internationally regarded as part of Sudan.