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CAIRO, June 18 (AFP) - The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) shot down an army helicopter gunship that attacked civilians and SPLA fighters in the south of the country, a spokesman for the rebels group claimed Tuesday.

SPLA forces on Monday downed a helicopter that had "bombed" western Upper Nile state, the spokesman, Yasser Arman, told Nampa-AFP by telephone from Eritrea.

The helicopter "crashed near a village in the Mankien Mayom region and was completely burned, with its crew aboard," Arman said, without giving more details on the alleged attack by the helicopter or how many people died when it was downed.

The SPLA has been fighting successive governments in the Arab and Muslim north since 1983 for self-determination in the mainly Christian and animist south. The conflict has left two million people dead and another four million displaced.

On Sunday, the SPLA claimed what it called a major victory, capturing the southern town of Kapoeta, not far from the Kenyan and Ugandan borders and which had been under government control since 1993. - Nampa-AFP

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