Breaking news
U.N. helicopters fire on rebels fighting Congolese troops 2908132.
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Defence & Security News - Congo |
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| Thursday, August 29, 2013 10:26 AM | |||
| U.N. helicopters fire on rebels fighting Congolese troops. | |||
A United Nations peacekeeper has been
killed and three others wounded in escalating violence in the eastern
Congo, which also saw UN helicopters fire on rebels fighting Congolese
troops. The nationality of the slain peacekeeper was not immediately known
and no other details were given. |
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 A United Nations peacekeeping mission helicopter flys over a UN basecamp in Goma on May 29, 2013 |
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The
latest fighting began just before 8am on Wednesday in the hills of the
Kibati area, about 15km north of the provincial capital of Goma, according
to both a government and a UN spokesman.
The rebels confirmed that they had been attacked by ground troops as well as from the air. "There was a big offensive this morning. The government's army, helped by the United Nations, attacked our positions near Goma with aircrafts, with combat tanks and with infantry," said the president of the M23 rebel movement, Bertrand Bisimwa. Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Olivier Hamuli said the UN brigade and regular UN peacekeepers had supported government forces with heavy artillery and attack helicopters. "Combat is ongoing and there has been an intense
bombardment of Kibati," he told the Reuters news agency. "It's
going well. We have not advanced much but M23 is gaining no territory." |
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