New York: UN helicopter gunships have fired rockets at rebels who targeted its reconnaissance planes in the eastern Congo s restive Ituri province while attempting to advance against the government forces.

The UN action was the latest in a series of strikes against the rebel Ituri Patriotic Resistance Front (FRPI) and comes less than two weeks after peacekeepers from the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) sent in combat helicopters against another rebel group in North Kivu province.

"MONUC is intervening with all the means at its disposal, including attack helicopters, to protect the civilian population which is in imminent danger," the mission said yesterday.

"Moreover MONUC is cooperating with the DRC armed forces to re-establish state authority over the whole of Ituri," it added.

Residual FRPI elements launched attacks on Monday against the army, capturing two camps and advancing towards the village of Aveba before they were repulsed by MONUC.

On September 19,UN helicopters opened fire on the rebel National Congress for People's Defence (CNDP) in North Kivu, forcing them to withdraw after they tried to take control of a town 60 kms from the region s main city, Goma.

Humanitarian and human rights organisations are reporting a sharp increase in the recruitment of child soldiers by armed groups in North Kivu, a crime against humanity and a violation of an agreement they signed at the beginning of the year, MONUC spokesman Michel Bonnardeaux told reporters yesterday in Kinshasa, the DRC capital.
Source : PTI