U.N. peacekeepers killed in Darfur ambush

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Three U.N. peacekeepers were killed in an ambush on a camp for displaced people in Darfur, something the U.N. mission there said amounts to a war crime.

Three members of the African Union-U.N. Hybrid Operation in Darfur, or UNAMID, were killed at the Zam Zam camp for the internally displaced in an overnight ambush, the mission said.

Six other peacekeepers were injured and one assailant was killed in the attack.

Ibrahim Gambari, the head of the U.N. mission, condemned the attacks, the second in as many months.

"An attack on international peacekeepers is a war crime and we will ensure that justice will be served," he said. "This deplorable incident will not deter UNAMID''s strong commitment to its mission to protect the people of Darfur."

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is accused by the International Criminal Court of war crimes for the genocide in Darfur in 2003. Khartoum isn't party to the Rome Statute that created the international court, however.

The attack on the U.N. mission in Darfur follows pledges from the government in Khartoum to consider arrangements for displaced refugees to return to the troubled region.

More than 30 members of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Darfur have been killed since it took over from an African Union force in 2008.