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U.N. Troops Launch Offensive in East Congo
 Hundreds of United Nations troops launched a major offensive in northeast Congo on Friday to hunt down militiamen who killed nine U.N. Bangladeshi peacekeepers last month, a U.N. military source said. "We are conducting a cordon-and-search operation as well as trying to apprehend the perpetrators of the killing of the Bangladeshis," the source said. The operation northeast of the town of Bunia in the Ituri district involved around 500 peacekeepers and started at around 7:30 a.m. local time (12:30 a.m. EST), the source said. Witnesses said rotations of U.N. helicopter gunships had been leaving Bunia airport throughout the morning. The United Nations has been criticized in the past for being ineffective in reining in marauding militias in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo, but has said it plans to step up operations to dismantle militia training camps in the region. U.N. soldiers killed at least 50 militiamen in a fierce gunbattle involving helicopter gunships earlier this month, five days after the Bangladeshi soldiers were killed in an ambush in lawless Ituri.
Posted by: Steve 2005-03-11 |
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