Congolese soldiers supported by UN forces fought rebels in the country's deteriorating east for hours today, officials said, while a rocket landed inside the town of Goma and killed three people as border tensions escalated between Rwanda and Congo.
Scores of angry residents took to the streets of Goma in protest following several days of violence that has left at least seven dead and dozens wounded.
Congo immediately blamed the attacks on neighbouring Rwanda, which has long been accused of supporting the eastern Congolese rebel movement known as M23.
"We wonder, for how long will the international community continue to tolerate these offenses?" Lambert Mende, a spokesman for the Congolese government, told The Associated Press.
Rwanda, which has vigorously denied allegations by the United Nations and others that it has provided support to the M23 rebels fighting the Congolese government, also accused Congolese forces of attacking Rwanda. The Rwandan army said mortar fire landed in several villages along the border on Friday afternoon.
"The continued indiscriminate bombing of Rwandan villages by (Congolese) armed forces is unacceptable and must stop immediately," said Brig Joseph Nzabamwita, a spokesman for Rwanda's military.
The M23 rebel group briefly overtook Goma late last November and subsequent peace talks in neighbouring Uganda have repeatedly stalled. M23's leaders previously headed other rebel groups in the region that were backed by Rwanda.
On Friday, the UN and Congolese officials confirmed that the new UN intervention brigade had shelled rebel positions on Thursday for the first time since the force was created in March.
