Sudan's security forces have arrested opposition Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi shortly after Khartoum said sympathisers with his party had been detained in connection with a coup attempt.
"Security officers surrounded the house, all carrying weapons, and told the guard (of the house) that they wanted the sheikh (Turabi). He came out and they took him away," Turabi's wife Wisal al-Mahdi told journalists this morning.
A high-ranking Sudanese military official said on Monday security forces had arrested 10 military officers at the weekend who were plotting to overthrow the government. He said they all had sympathies to Turabi's opposition Popular Congress party.
Prior to his arrest, Turabi denied his party was involved in a coup bid. The opposition leader is a former ally of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 military coup.
Turabi, in his early 70s, was previously detained in 2001 after a power struggle with Bashir and was released from house arrest in October.
Asked why Turabi had been arrested again, his wife said: "Because the sheikh represents the only strong opposition to the government at the moment."
She said the security forces had arrived in about five vehicles, including three pick-up trucks, and surrounded the house in the Manshia district of Khartoum.
Awad Babiker, Turabi's secretary, said it was not immediately clear where Turabi had been taken, but said he might go to Kober prison in Khartoum North, where he has been held in the past.
Babiker said 10 political officers of the Popular Party had been arrested. Party officials had said the first arrests were made shortly after the government rounded up the military officers in connection with the coup attempt.
The military official said the arrested officers were mostly from west Sudan, where rebels have been fighting the government for more than a year.
Turabi had previously told Reuters that while his party was not involved in any coup attempt he supported the charges by the western rebels who say their region has been neglected by the central government.
The government boycotted the opening session of peace talks with the western rebels in Chad on Tuesday in protest at the presence of international observers, a source close to the peace talks said.