Troops battle Hutu rebels

CONGOLESE Hutu rebels said yesterday they had clashed for the first time with a Rwandan-Congolese force deployed to crush them, and civilians expressed fears they would be caught up in the violence.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's army said the joint force had killed nine rebels from the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in two days of fighting.

Congo's ethnic Hutus said they feared they might be unfairly targeted. "When they hunt down the FDLR, they are going to kill us as well, because we are Hutus and the FDLR are also Hutus," said a man in North Kivu province.

Rwanda has twice invaded its larger western neighbour under the pretext of rooting out the rebels, sparking a 1998-2003 war that led to a humanitarian catastrophe thought to have killed 5.4 million people.