UN forces kill 60 rebels in Congo gunbattle

UN peacekeepers have killed up to 60 militia members in a gun fight in north-eastern Congo, a UN spokesman said.

The gunfight took place yesterday in the violent Ituri province, where nine peacekeepers were ambushed and killed by militia members last week.

UN spokesman Colonel Dominique Demange said his troops used an attack helicopter in the operation against the militia. He said between 50 and 60 militia members had been confirmed dead.

It is the greatest number of enemy combatants killed by peacekeepers since the Congo mission was created in 1999.

The militia belonged to the ethnic Lendu group Nationalist and Integrationist Front, who have been terrorising villages. The United Nations suspects the same group was responsible for killing the nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers.

Since December, Lendu militia have killed dozens of people, looted and burned homes and forced over 70,000 people to roam the hills in search of safety.

"This group continues to loot, kill and rape these people, making life miserable," said UN spokeswoman Eliane Nabaa. "It's time to put an end to this militia."

Since 1999, fighting in the north-eastern district of Ituri has killed more than 50,000 and forced 500,000 to flee their homes, UN officials and human rights groups say.

The Ituri conflict is a bloody side-show to Congo's five year, six-nation war that ended in 2002 with the formation of a transitional government a year later, which has struggled to extend its authority to the long-ungoverned east.

AP