Sierra Leone Rebels Kill 7 Peacekeepers

The U.N. peacekeeping operation in Sierra Leone, poised to become the world’s largest, has suffered its first combat fatalities, as rebels who fought in the civil war killed seven Kenyans in a dispute over disarmament.

U.N. officials said the peacekeepers were killed in clashes with Revolutionary United Front followers of rebel leader Foday Sankoh in the central towns of Makeni and Magburaka on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone responded to the killings and the kidnapping of 50 of its members by confining Sankoh to his home in Freetown, the capital--ostensibly to make negotiating easier.

In another hint that the international community might take a hard line with any faction blocking implementation of a 1999 peace accord, the United States said it was looking into ways to give the force more teeth.

The mission is due to reach its full strength of 11,100 by July, when it will be the largest U.N. peacekeeping operation in the world. The force, which has grown in size since November, seeks to ensure compliance with the accord that halted eight years of civil war marked by rebel atrocities against civilians of all ages, including the hacking off of limbs.