Rebels Say Ambush of Train Was Legitimate

Rebels in Angola claimed responsibility Monday for a train ambush last week that left scores of people dead, but they insisted that the train was a legitimate military target.

The train, carrying about 500 refugees fleeing fighting between the government and rebels, hit a mine Friday, derailed and burst into flames before coming under attack by gunmen. Many of the dead were trapped in the train and were burned alive, government officials said.

Death toll reports varied. The Roman Catholic radio station Ecclesia reported that emergency workers buried 152 dead in a common grave near the wreck, about 80 miles from Luanda, the capital. At least 146 people were wounded, it said.

But in a statement, a leader of the UNITA rebel group, Geraldo Abreu Kamorteiro, said the rebels attacked and destroyed the train, killing 26 soldiers and 11 police.

The statement claimed the train had a large military and police escort and was carrying munitions and other army supplies. It said the rebels seized automatic weapons, an anti-aircraft gun and large amounts of ammunition.

Government officials in Angola were not immediately available for comment. They previously had said the train had no army escort.

The ambush was believed to be the deadliest single rebel attack since Angola’s civil war resumed in 1998, when a peace accord brokered by the United Nations collapsed.

Two of the train’s cars were carrying drums of gasoline that exploded, engulfing adjoining carriages, Ecclesia reported.

Civilians trying to flee the fire were gunned down, according to survivors.

Nearly 4 million people have been driven from their homes by fighting that has raged between government forces and UNITA--a Portuguese acronym for the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola--since the country’s 1975 independence from Portugal.