Congo rebels stage pullback

RWINDI, CONGO — Rebels pulled hundreds of fighters back from several front-line positions as promised Wednesday, but U.N. forces exchanged fire with Mai Mai militiamen who attacked with machine guns in Kibitutu, a village about 45 miles north of Goma.

Farther north, two charred bodies and scattered debris from looted shops littered the red earth roads of the army- occupied village of Kirumba, one day after the army clashed with the Mai Mai, a group normally allied with the government.

Years of sporadic violence in eastern Congo intensified in August, and fighting between the army and fighters loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda has displaced at least 250,000 people.

Nkunda says he is protecting Tutsis from Hutus who fled to Congo after Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. But critics say he is more interested in power and Congo’s mineral wealth.

Nkunda told U.N. envoy Olusegun Obasanjo over the weekend that he was committed to a cease-fire and United Nations peace efforts.

But his troops continued to gobble up territory this week in the hills north of Goma.

In a turnaround, rebels announced Tuesday that their fighters would immediately withdraw 25 miles from hot spots north of Goma to prevent further fighting.

U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich confirmed Wednesday’s pullback and called it “a positive step.”

He said rebels withdrew from three fronts around Kanyabayonga, about 80 miles north of Goma.

The pullback could lead to talks on ending the crisis.