Insurgents sworn to ousting Chad's President Idriss Deby attacked an army base in the remote southeast on Sunday and said they had taken two other towns in what the government said was an attempt to derail May elections, Reuters reported. An alliance of nine Chadian guerrilla groups, the United Front for Democratic Change (FUC), said it carried out the attack on the town of Haraze Mangueigne, close to the borders with Sudan and Central African Republic, and said it had also taken control of Am Timan and Abou-Deia further northwest. "This is only the beginning -- our morale is very high," Abdel Rahman Abdel Karim, one of the rebel FUC leaders, told Reuters by phone. He said the fighting had lasted one hour with only four men injured and that 50 prisoners had been taken. But a Chadian military source said the attackers had not got beyond Haraze Mangueigne. "Neither Am Timam nor Abou-Deia are affected and they are not under the control of rebel units. For now the security forces are at Haraze Mangueigne," the source said. Chad's government said in a statement it had sent army reinforcements to the Haraze Mangueigne garrison to try to overcome the attackers, but made no mention of the other two towns or of any casualties. --more 21 51 Local Time 18 51 GMT
