29/08/13 BBC: UN peacekeeper killed in M23 battle near Goma

 A UN spokesman in New York, Farhan Haq,
would not give the nationalities of the casualties or supply further details.

UN forces used attack
helicopters to push back M23 rebels from positions near Goma, the main city in
the region.

Fighting last week left
more than 80 people dead.

Rebels seized Goma in 2012
but withdrew under diplomatic pressure.

The UN has deployed a new
intervention brigade to mineral-rich DR Congo to tackle the rebels.

'Heavy weapons'

The UN peacekeeping mission
in DR Congo – known by its French initials, Monusco – is fighting alongside
government forces.

"Monusco has enlisted
all of its attack helicopters and its artillery… to push back the M23
offensive that is under way right now on the hills of Kibati," Monusco
spokesman Felix Basse told the Associated Press news agency.

Kibati is about 15km (nine
miles) north of Goma, a city of about 200,000 people.

The M23 said the Congolese
army and UN intervention brigade had attacked its forces in areas north of Goma
with infantry, air strikes and heavy weapons, Reuters news agency reports.

Government and UN forces
have been battling the rebels since last week.

A doctor in Goma, Isaac
Warwanamiza, told AP he had seen 82 bodies, including those of 23 government
soldiers, on Sunday.

The UN has an 18,000-strong
force in DR Congo.

Its intervention brigade,
made up of some 3,000 troops, has a mandate to disarm and neutralise rebel
groups in the region.

It is the strongest mandate
ever given to such a force by the UN Security Council, UN officials say.

The M23 is made up of
deserters from the Congolese army.

About 800,000 people have fled their homes since it
launched its rebellion in 2012.