An air strike on a car on Sudan's Red Sea coast killed its two passengers and destroyed the vehicle, the head of the state assembly said.

"A plane bombed a small car which was coming from Port Sudan airport to the town... There were two people in the car and both were killed. The vehicle was completely destroyed," Mohammed Tahir said.

The unidentified plane, which struck about 10:00pm (local time), flew in from the Red Sea to which it then returned, Mr Tahir added.

There was no immediate word on the identity of the two dead passengers or on whose aircraft carried out the strike.

The United States maintains a counter-terrorism base in Djibouti which has been active against Al Qaeda suspects on both sides of the Red Sea, but its reported strikes against jihadist targets are all said to have involved drones.

Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has also long maintained a base in exile in Sudan and Israeli officials have expressed concern about suspected arms smuggling through the country.

But the Israeli military had no immediate comment on the air strike.

- AFP