Government troops backed by U.N. helicopters and armored vehicles battled militia fighters Saturday in Congo's restive northeast, leaving two U.N. peacekeepers wounded and at least a dozen militants dead, officials said, according to AP. Fighting between soldiers and members of the Ituri Patriotic Resistance Front broke out around dawn some 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Bunia, the capital of Ituri Province, and at least 12 militants were killed, said Gen. Mbuayama Nsiona. «We've already buried 12 militants killed in combat and we know there had to be lots more» bodies still unaccounted for, he said. A U.N. spokesman, Leocadio Salmeron, said a U.N. rapid-reaction force in helicopters and armored vehicles responded in support of the government troops. Two Bangladeshi members of the U.N.'s 17,500-troop force in Congo were injured in fighting, he said. Congolese troops suffered no casualties, said Nsiona. Congo's eastern Ituri region _ and much of the rest of the eastern borderlands _ has remained restive as the country aims to move toward democracy and peace with its first democratic government in decades. A first-round presidential vote was held in July and the second round is set for the end of October. Congo has been operating under a transitional government since the end of a 1996-2002 war.
