The United Nations blames this attack -- and numerous others like it -- on the Janjaweed: a violent militia with reported ties to the Sudanese government in the capital of Khartoum.

The assault is but one example of the conflict that has raged since 2003 between the Arab-Islamic government and rebel groups fighting for independence -- a conflict that has killed roughly 180,000 people, although some analysts estimate the death toll to be more than 300,000.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and the U.S. Congress have called the crisis genocide.

The Janjaweed have primarily targeted the Fur, Tunjur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups, presumed to be sympathetic to rebels opposing the government. The attacks against the non-Arab Muslims by the Janjaweed have been "grossly disproportionate to the military threat of the rebellion," wrote Alex de Waal in a 2004 essay that appeared in the London Review of Books.

De Waal, program director at the nonprofit Social Science Research Council, called the attacks "the deliberate destruction of a community."

The name Janjaweed is a combination of Arabic words meaning outlaws, gun and horse -- appropriate associations, as observers often tell stories of Janjaweed militiamen riding horses and brandishing heavy weaponry like AK-47s and G-3 rifles.

Experts say the Janjaweed originated from a Chadian warlord militia sponsored by Libya that retreated into Darfur after the Chadians defeated Muammar Gaddafi in 1987, de Waal said.

The militia teamed up with nomadic, camel-herding Darfurian Arab tribes, impoverished by drought through the early 1980s and in need of land on which to settle. These loose roving bands of armed fighters worked as a "freelance tribal militia" for 10 years before assuming the role of counterinsurgent "used by the government of Sudan" to combat rebels, said de Waal.

A religious agenda does not impel the Janjaweed, de Waal said. Its motivation is land, but blatant racism and a political ideology known as "Arab supremacism" also fuel the Janjaweed's agenda.

The Janjaweed are both "cleaning" the land of non-Arabs and viciously combating the rebellion while receiving impunity from the government in Khartoum, de Waal said.

The Janjaweed has been a key force in the government's campaign in Darfur "that has resulted in the murder, rape and forced displacement of thousands of civilians," said Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit organization particularly concerned about Darfur.

The Sudanese government denies any relationship with the Janjaweed and says that it is seeking to disarm both the Janjaweed and the Darfur rebels.

"The government armed the people who volunteered to fight against the rebels, the armed groups. And, these people were not Janjaweed," Sudanese Ambassador to the United States Khidir Haroun Ahmed told the Online NewsHour in September 2005. "[T]he government has no hesitation at all in disarming the Janjaweed. The problem is the other nomad tribes. These people and the lack of law enforcement in the region, they will not disarm themselves unless you disarm the rebels groups."

Most international observers dispute the government assertions. Groups like Human Rights Watch and International Crisis Group -- another nonprofit focused on Darfur -- accuse the Janjaweed militias of carrying out most of the atrocities in Darfur. Armed with anecdotal reports from eye witnesses, they have charged the Sudanese government with financing and arming the militia. ICG went as far to say that Khartoum has established "divisions" within the militia: the Strike Force, Border Guard and Hamina (traditional tribal leaders).

In September 2004, Musa Hilal -- widely regarded as the leader of Janjaweed and placed on the U.S. State Department's list of suspected genocidal criminals -- told HRW that the Sudanese military commands the Janjaweed.

"All of the people in the field [the Janjaweed] are led by top army commanders," said Hilal. "The highest rank is major, and officers, and some sergeants, and some captains, and so on. These people get their orders from the western command center, and from Khartoum."

A February 2004 Sudanese government memo obtained by HRW appears to back up Hilal's relationship with the government.

The memo, sent from local authorities in North Darfur, urges security units in the area to "allow the activities of the mujahedeen [a paramilitary unit organized by the government] and the volunteers under command of the Musa Hilal to proceed in the areas of [north Darfur] and to secure their vital needs." The directive then asks that volunteers "overlook minor offenses by the mujahedeen against civilians who are suspected members of the rebellion."

Khartoum nonetheless denies any links between it and the Janjaweed -- and has said it is working to simultaneously disarm everyone, including the Janjaweed and the rebels, in the region.

"There are crimes committed by the Janjaweed definitely, no doubt about that. Maybe other nomad militias also subscribe to some kind of havoc in the region, no doubt about that. But, there is a great deal of violations committed by these two rebels group. But because they got sympathy here, because many people also politicize the situation for different reasons, because many people are looking for regime change in Khartoum using this Darfur issue, you don't hear much about that," Ambassador Ahmed said.

The president of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, has called for increasing the police force in an effort to end the violence, but HRW has said that as early as 2004 Janjaweed members are being "absorbed" into the police forces in Darfur.

-- By Oliver Read, Online NewsHour