KHARTOUM - A Sudanese army raid killed at least 40 people in the Darfur town of Muhajiriya, where bodies were still lying in the streets, the rebel faction which controls the area said on Tuesday.

"Until now the number of dead civilians are at least 40, with 80 missing and a large number of injured," the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) said in a statement sent to Reuters.

The SLA faction led by Minni Arcua Minnawi was the only one of three rebel negotiating groups to sign a May 2006 peace deal with Khartoum and became part of the government.

"Bodies are still lying around the town as this statement is written," the statement by SLA Minnawi's military spokesman Mohamed Hamid Dirbeen said.

"Some of the victims looked like they had been executed," it said.

The African Union force commander said reasons for the attack were unclear, but it was either tribal tensions or a spillover as government troops clashed with other rival rebel factions.

Minnawi's group said the attack had damaged the hopes for peace talks due to begin in Libya on Oct. 27.