Army, Rebels Fight Outside Capital

Burundi’s Hutu rebels battled government troops outside the capital, Bujumbura, in heavy fighting that left scores dead and the latest efforts to secure peace in the nation’s 7-year-old civil war foundering.

“We have taken the administrative office of Kinama zone [eight miles from Bujumbura], killed many government soldiers and wounded many others,” rebel spokesman Anicet Ntawuhiganayo said by telephone. It was not possible to verify his claims.

Defense Minister Cyrille Ndayirukiye said 35 people, 10 of them rebels, had been killed in the fighting since Sunday. He did not say how many of the dead were government soldiers.