Reports emerged March 26 of an airstrike on a convoy of suspected arms smugglers in Sudan in January. Information is still sketchy at this point, and the story has unraveled with each new statement, but the report appears to have originated in Sudan, with Sudanese officials pointing fingers at the United States. (This comes after the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al Bashir, who has maintained a defiant position despite the pressure.) A CBS report then emerged citing U.S. officials that in turn placed responsibility in Israel's lap. At the moment, these reports raise more questions than answers. These reports have already been circulated across various media outlets, and most reports read identically. Where did they come from, who leaked them and why now? Are the reports accurate? At this point, the reports suggest that a 17-truck convoy was attacked north of the Sudanese city of Port Sudan (near the Egyptian border) by aircraft, killing some 39 people. The convoy was supposedly carrying arms bound for Hamas in Gaza — weapons that originated from Iran. (STRATFOR has noted connections between Iran and Sudan.) If accurate, what weapons were being smuggled? Small-arms ammunition, mortars and the occasional Grad artillery rocket? Advanced anti-tank guided missiles? Who pulled off the reported attack and why? If reports of the scale of this attack are accurate, it would have taken more than a single unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to pull it off, even the more heavily armed MQ-9 Reaper. The U.S. military operates out of Camp Lemonier in Djibouti, the base of operations for counterterrorism efforts in the Horn of Africa. Aircraft as large as the AC-130 gunship are thought to operate from there, though most of the presence there is thought to consist of CIA and special operations force elements. The Pentagon certainly has the assets in place to accomplish an operation like this. It is a 600-mile flight down the Red Sea and the coast of Egypt before Israel planes could arrive at the Sudanese coast, and then get further inland for the actual strike. But Israel has aerial refueling capability and strike fighters capable of the inland leg that could then be refueled over the Red Sea before returning to base. Israel thus also certainly has the capability to do something like this. Were any other countries' airspace violated? Why were the Egyptian authorities not notified? The decision to proceed with a direct strike that would take significant planning suggests that it was more important to destroy the convoy immediately than to trust the Egyptians with the intelligence. Finally, this was not a strike of opportunity carried out by a UAV that happened to be in the area. As mentioned, if reports of the scale of the attack are accurate, refueling aircraft had to be in place and manned strike aircraft armed and briefed on the mission. Even on a contracted timetable, that takes actionable intelligence with significant longevity. What was this intelligence and where did it come from?