NAIROBI, KENYA - Darfur rebels staged a bold attack Saturday on Sudan's capital, Khartoum, advancing to within a few miles of the city's center, according to the government and the rebels.

By nightfall, it seemed that government forces had beaten them back but only after declaring a citywide curfew, deploying attack helicopters and hundreds of troops, and essentially shutting down the city.

"Let there be no mistake about it, everything is under control," said Rabie A. Atti, a government spokesman. "The rebels didn't succeed. We have them surrounded. They are now running away from us."

The conflict in Darfur, a desiccated region of western Sudan hundreds of miles from Khartoum, has been raging on and off for years. But the attack Saturday was the first time major fighting from this conflict spilled into the capital's suburbs, a possible sign of rising instability to come.

Leaders of the Justice and Equality Movement, one of the bigger rebel groups, quickly claimed a victory.

"Our forces are everywhere in the capital," a London-based rebel spokesman, Ahmed Hussein Adam, told Agence France-Presse.

Rabie said the skirmishes were confined to Northern Omdurman, a Khartoum suburb along the marshy banks of the Nile River. Residents said they heard heavy, continuous shelling and saw rebel pick-up trucks burning in the streets.

"We never expected this, not here," said Selma Suleman, one of the residents. "People are scared."

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