29/08/13 Reuters: U.N. peacekeeper killed in Congo fighting; three others wounded

Democratic Republic of Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission used
helicopters, artillery and ground troops in support of government forces that
launched the assault on rebel positions north of Goma, a city of 1 million
people on the Rwandan border.

A 3,000-strong U.N.
intervention brigade, with a tough new mandate to protect civilians and
neutralize armed groups in the mineral-rich central African nation, sprang into
action last week after the United Nations accused the rebels of shelling the
city.

The M23 rebels, aware that
their presence within striking distance of Goma is key to their leverage in
stalled peace talks, have fiercely resisted Congolese army efforts to push them
back.

Wednesday's fighting
focused on the high ground around the village of Kibati,
11 km (7 miles) north of Goma.

"The M23 has been
using these positions to shell populated areas. The objective of the operation
is therefore to remove the threat against Goma," U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq
said.

Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission, known
as MONUSCO, later said that the dead peacekeeper was a Tanzanian.

A U.N. official in Goma
said Indian peacekeepers and members of the intervention brigade – composed of
Tanzanian, South African and Malawian troops – had taken part in the fighting.

South African military
spokesman Brigadier General Xolani Mabanga said two of the wounded soldiers
were South African.

The nationality of the
third person wounded in the attack was not yet known.

A Congolese officer at the
frontline said government troops had by early evening seized strategic hills in
Kibati and were fending off attempts to retake them.

BORDER TENSIONS

MONUSCO's top military
official said that at least one, and possibly two shells fell inside Goma late
on Wednesday.

Residents of the city's
Mabanga Nord neighborhood told a Reuters witness that a 14-year-old boy was
killed and others injured in one of the blasts.

Mortar bombs and rockets
have struck both sides of Congo's
border with Rwanda
in the past week, raising tensions between two neighbors which have fought two
wars since the 1990s.

Kigali has accused Congo's army of firing on its territory, and
Rwandan army spokesman Brigadier General Joseph Nzabamwita said mortar bombs
had rained down on Rwanda
"the whole day".

At least seven civilians
were killed by shells that landed in Goma on Thursday and Saturday,
humanitarian agencies and witnesses said.

Congo has blamed M23 for firing into Rwanda
to try to draw in Kigali, which U.N.
investigators accused of supporting the 18-month rebellion – a charge Rwanda has
denied.

M23 humiliated Congo's army
and the 17,000-strong MONUSCO force by briefly occupying Goma in November,
forcing the government to accept peace talks.

The new U.N. intervention
brigade was created in March, marking an aggressive step-up for peacekeeping
operations in the region, which for years have been criticized for inaction.

Bolstered by the new brigade,
Congolese President Joseph Kabila has effectively ditched the peace talks in
the Ugandan capital Kampala,
analysts say.

But MONUSCO chief Martin
Kobler said protecting eastern Congo's
largest city was the government's responsibility.

"The U.N. cannot
guarantee the security of Goma. It's our partners the (Congolese army) who will
do that," he said.