| UN congo forces kill 50 congo militia Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/03/02/congo.deaths/http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/03/02/congo.deaths/
U.N. forces kill 50 Congo militia
(CNN) -- U.N. peacekeepers have killed up to 50 Congolese militiamen in fierce fighting in a lawless region where nine Bangladeshi soldiers were killed last week, according to the U.N.
The deaths occurred during a U.N. air and ground operation on Tuesday northeast of Bunia, the capital of the eastern Ituri province.
The operation was launched by South African, Pakistani and Nepalese troops near the town of Loga. The region is controlled by militia that the United Nations says continues to spread terror and looting.
The U.N. said an investigation had been started into the deaths. "In principle these were militiamen (who were killed) but we cannot confirm it 100 percent," U.N. spokeswoman Eliane Nabaa told CNN on Wednesday.
She added that 50,000 people had been displaced in the region as a result of the militias.
On Tuesday, three militia fighters were arrested in the killings of the nine U.N. peacekeepers on patrol in the same area of the Congo.
Floribert Njabu, president of the Nationalist Integrationist Front (FNI), Goda Sopka, also from FNI, and Germain Katanga, from the Patriotic Resistance Forces in Ituri, were all arrested in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa, according to U.N. spokeswoman Stephane Dujarric.
The nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers were killed Friday in what the United Nations called a premeditated attack in the lawless Ituri region.
Dujarric said it was one of the worst single-day incidents in recent peacekeeping history.
It was believed the attack came in response to peacekeepers' efforts to neutralize the militia, which U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said had been terrorizing locals, looting and carrying out illegal tax collections.
The nine soldiers were taking part in a 21-man foot patrol ambushed about three miles (five kilometers) west of Kafe, said U.N. spokesman Mamadou Bah in Kinshasa.
U.N. peacekeepers have been in the Congo since November 1999, but increased their presence in Ituri in May 2003 after ethnic violence increased in the region.
According to the U.N., fighting between the Hema and Lendu tribes in Ituri has claimed more than 50,000 lives since 1999.
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