26 08 13 Associated Press: Casualties as Congo troops, UN forces fight rebels

Dr. Isaac Warwanamiza told
The Associated Press he had seen 82 dead since early Sunday, 23 of whom were
government soldiers, the highest death toll reported since hostilities broke
out last week.

Medical services were
struggling to cope with the scale of the casualties among government troops and
the M23 fighters who launched their rebellion last year, Warwanamiza
said.

"I'm overwhelmed by
what I've seen: bodies blown apart, arms and feet here and there," he
said, speaking by phone from a hospital north of Goma.

Three U.N. peacekeepers
were wounded Saturday in the fighting, though no injuries were immediately
reported by the U.N. peacekeeping mission Sunday.

A U.N. official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to
journalists, said that two M23 "colonels" had been killed
since Wednesday, while the Congolese military had not lost any senior officers.

The front line is only 9 miles (15 kilometers) north
of Goma. M23 rebels briefly overtook the city late last year, and
Congolese and U.N. troops have been battling to dislodge rebels from
heights overlooking the city since Wednesday.

Observers estimate that
Congolese forces have advanced less than a mile (about 2 kilometers) since
Wednesday and have yet to achieve their immediate objective _ cutting off M23
from a border crossing where the rebel group is believed to get supplies from
neighboring Rwanda.

An army chaplain at the military
hospital in Goma confirmed that Congolese troops had suffered heavy casualties
Sunday. Chaplain Lea Masika said 59 wounded had been brought into the hospital
since Sunday morning, bringing the total of wounded there to 720. The bodies of
three Congolese officers had been buried, he said.

The M23 is made up
of hundreds of Congolese soldiers mostly from the Tutsi ethnic group who
deserted the national army last year after accusing the government of failing
to honor the terms of a deal signed in March 2009. Many of the movement's
commanders are veterans of previous rebellions backed by Rwanda, which
vigorously denies allegations that it has been supporting and reinforcing M23.

The rebels briefly seized
Goma, a city of nearly 1 million people, last November, before withdrawing
under international pressure and in return for a promise of peace talks with
the government. The talks in neighboring Uganda have frequently stalled and
appear to have made little progress since March.

The renewed fighting erupted
Wednesday, breaking a three-week lull in the region. On Thursday, the new U.N.
intervention brigade that was created in March with a strong mandate to protect
civilians fired for the first time on rebel positions.

"We are using
artillery, indirect fire with mortars and our aviation, and at the moment we
have troops in the front line alongside (the government forces)," Gen. Dos
Santos Cruz, the U.N. force commander in Congo, said Saturday.

However, there has been
widespread skepticism in Congo that the intervention brigade will be a
game-changing addition to the existing U.N. force, which stood by when M23
fighters captured Goma late last year.

On Saturday, scores of Goma
residents took to the streets in anger over a series of rocket and mortar
attacks that have left at least seven civilians dead in recent days. Two other
residents were killed during the demonstration, and the U.N. called for a joint
investigation.