Snipers hit M23 targets 2.2km away

Johannesburg - UN-deployed South African snipers have killed six M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a military union official said Thursday.

"We hit targets on at least six occasions with snipers," said South African Defence Union national secretary Pikkie Greeff. "In one case the target was 2.2km  away."

"On Saturday a South African sniper took out a machine gun post," he added.

Defence Force spokesperson Brigadier General Xolani Mabanga confirmed South Africa forces had engaged rebels, but could not elaborate on the sniper reports.

South African soldiers are part of a UN intervention brigade, which has an unprecedented mandate to battle the armed movements long active in eastern Congo.

They are fighting the M23 rebel movement, a predominantly ethnic Tutsi force that deserted from the army last year and been battling the regular army in the Goma area in sporadic clashes broke a July truce.

Greeff said that on Wednesday Russian-made Mi-24P helicopters belonging to the Ukrainian Air Force also joined the airstrikes on rebel targets around Goma.
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SA warns DRC rebels 'hands off Goma'

Pretoria - South Africa has warned rebels fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo not to try and retake the battleground city of Goma on Friday after a week of escalating violence.

South Africa is part of the UN peace enforcement military task force to the country's troubled eastern region bordering on Rwanda.

Goma, a mining hub and town of a million people, was briefly held by M23 rebels earlier in the year and still remains under threat.

"We're trying to send a message to the M23, this time around you're not going to see Goma," said Lieutenant General Derrick Mgwebi, South Africa National Defence Force Chief of Joint Operations.

"Don't venture in ideas of taking over again."

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Shelling into Rwanda came from Congo rebel areas, U.N. says

(Reuters) - U.N. peacekeepers in eastern Congo have witnessed shelling into Rwandan territory from positions occupied by M23 rebels over the past week and has not observed any firing into Rwanda by the Congolese army, a U.N. spokesman said on Thursday.
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