A renegade general battling government forces in eastern Congo said his fighters briefly wrested control of a town near a provincial capital in fighting Thursday before retreating to avoid civilian casualties. «Sake fell into our hands around 11:45 local time, when we dislodged the regular army,» former Gen. Laurent Nkunda told The Associated Press by telephone. Sake is about 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of the provincial capital of Goma, which is located on the Rwandan border on Lake Kivu. Nkunda said, however, that he ordered his fighters to pull back from Sake so that residents would not fall under fire. He has repeatedly accused the army of firing on civilians, a charge the army denies. «I plead for this war to end,» Nkunda said. «From the beginning, I never asked for this fighting, which has been created by Kinshasa.» Clashes in the restive border region this week have forced tens of thousands to flee their homes. Neighboring Uganda reported Tuesday that it received about 10,000 refugees in a 24-hour period. The U.N. is supporting the Congolese army, whose officials have claimed that at least 150 rebel fighters have been killed, though this has not been independently confirmed and rebels have said they do not have a figure on deaths.
