26 08 13 Reuters: U.S. urges restraint as fighting escalates in eastern Congo

"We urgently call on
(the) DRC and Rwandan governments to exercise restraint to prevent military
escalation of the conflict or any action that puts civilians at risk,"
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.

"We are deeply
concerned about evidence of increasing ethnic tensions in Goma and call on all
parties to avoid any actions that could exacerbate such tensions."

Harf said the United States
was ready to consider further targeted sanctions against M23 rebel leaders and
other armed groups.

Washington urged the U.N. mission in Congo, MONUSCO, to thoroughly investigate charges of
cross-border shelling. Rwanda
said five mortar bombs had fallen on Rwandan villages on Friday, following a
rocket the previous day, and blamed Congo's army.

A 3,000-member U.N.
Intervention Brigade has been deployed to fight and disarm rebels in the east.

Rwanda twice invaded its larger neighbor in the 1990s and sponsored rebels
trying to topple the Kinshasa
government. Millions have died since then in Congo's eastern border area, a
patchwork of rebel and militia fiefdoms in an area rich in tin as well as
tungsten and coltan ores.

A U.N. report in June said
the M23 recruited fighters in Rwanda
with the aid of sympathetic Rwandan army officers, while elements of the
Congolese army have cooperated with the Rwandan Hutu rebel group FDLR.