Luanda - Angolan government troops have seized two UNITA rebel strongholds in the centre of the country, Andulo and Bailundo, in a major setback to the rebels, military and diplomatic sources said in Luanda yesterday.
Media reports said advance units of government troops had entered Bailundo, following statements from UNITA that the town had been extensively damaged and hundreds of civilians had been killed by air raids and shelling.
Gen Joao Baptista de Matos, army commander-in-chief, was on the front line in the operation against Bailundo on Monday, an army spokesman said in the capital.
Angola plunged back into full-scale civil war last November after the collapse of attempts to settle the conflict.