 United Nations troops killed up to 38 militia fighters during a raid by hundreds of peacekeepers backed by helicopter gunships in the Ituri district of eastern Congo, a UN military source has said. "It was serious fighting and 38 militiamen were killed," the source told Reuters. The clash came a day after a UN deadline expired for voluntary disarmament by militias, who have killed hundreds of civilians in the mineral-rich region. Earlier, the UN mission said South African, Bangladeshi and Pakistani peacekeepers exchanged fire with armed men as they searched two militia camps 40 km southwest of Bunia, capital of Ituri.
| No word on the UN casualties, if any. I'm assuming they're not very high... |
The United Nations now has 16,700 soldiers in Congo, making it the largest peacekeeping mission in the world. It has been criticised in the past for failing to rein in the brutal militias, who have carried out attacks on civilians, kidnapping, decapitating and torturing their victims. But after nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed in February - the worst single loss suffered by the peacekeeping mission since it began in 1999 - the UN force stepped up military operations against armed gangs.
| ... demonstrating once again that hard boyz with guns aren't a match for even poorly trained soldiers. |
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