SA plays key role in repelling M23 rebels

Heat of BattleSouth African soldiers this week fought in bloody clashes in the escalating conflict in the DRC

With South African soldiers at the forefront of attacks on rebels this week, the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo is threatening to escalate into all-out war.

In a dramatic week of fighting with a UN force against M23 rebels, the South African troops took part in their first ground assaults of the campaign, as the M23 rebels rained rockets on the lakeside town of Goma while Rwandan tanks massed on the border, threatening to attack.

The Sunday Times visited the front line at Kibumba yesterday afternoon, where Congolese troops and M23 rebels were still slugging it out, exchanging machine gun, RPG and mortar fire.

It was possible to piece together the events from several visits to operational areas and first-hand accounts of the South African National Defence Force, Tanzanian and Congolese army combatants.

In an interview, South African commander Colonel Patrick Dube confirmed for the first time that his troops played a key role in repelling the rebels this week. The South Africans deployed a platoon from 6 SA Infantry battalion from Grahams-town in support of the Congolese army during the battle.

Congolese troops said support from South African troops had been invaluable. "We fought with the South Africans yesterday and today," said one soldier near the front line on Thursday. "The South African - he's a soldier. They are fighters and go to the front line."

Local commanders said the number of South African soldiers wounded had risen to five. But SANDF spokesman Brigadier General Xolani Mabanga said yesterday the official figure remained three.

"The fighting was hot," confirmed a South African paratrooper fresh from the front, who had come to visit a wounded fellow soldier at the UN hospital in Goma. "I'm in battle gear 24/7 - I don't even know what day it is any more."

A Tanzanian soldier said their contingent worked closely with their South African counterparts. "We fight together with them on the front line. Even yesterday we were fighting together. It was a very heavy fight. They are good fighters - very well trained."

After a lull of almost a month, fresh fighting broke out on August 21 when the rebels attacked Congolese army positions from the hills of Kibati, about 12km north of Goma. They also shelled Goma, leaving several civilians dead. On Wednesday night, the rebels fired two shells into Goma, killing one civilian and wounding eight.

The attack was repulsed by the Congolese army supported by artillery, mortar and helicopter gunship fire from the UN's 3000-strong brigade, which includes 1345 South African soldiers.

The UN has almost 20000 troops in the eastern DRC. In March, the brigade became the first to be given an offensive mandate by the UN Security Council.

The battle erupted in earnest on Wednesday when the rebels launched another bid to take Goma, which they occupied for 10 days in November last year.

Congolese and UN forces tried to dislodge them from Three Towers, a strategic hill within shelling range of Goma. The hill has three cellphone masts - including Vodacom's, which was knocked down during the battle. The position is close to the main South African base at Monigi hill.

Throughout Wednesday, Russian Hind attack helicopters, equipped only with cannons, flew sorties over enemy positions, supported by South African Oryx helicopters flown in from Waterkloof Air Force Base in Pretoria. The South African helicopters were used to deploy troops and evacuate casualties.

The air attacks were supported by Tanzanian artillery and South African mortar and reconnaissance teams. South African snipers reportedly killed six rebel commanders - in one case from a range of 2.2km. The long-distance kill could not be confirmed independently.

Later in the afternoon, as fighting tapered off, a South African C130 Hercules transport aircraft landed at Goma, bringing in more ammunition.

"We had been pounding Three Towers since 21 August," Dube said yesterday. "The M23 positions were very well dug in. The difference came on Thursday afternoon with the air strikes. They [the Congolese army] would still be fighting if we hadn't got involved."

By the end of Thursday, two South African soldiers had been lightly wounded by shrapnel and a Tanzanian officer killed by a rebel artillery attack.

On Thursday morning, heavy fighting resumed and by evening Three Towers Hill had been taken by the UN force and the rebels had retreated to their stronghold at Kibumba, 23km north of Goma. By then another South African soldier had been wounded.

Accurate casualty figures on both sides are impossible to obtain and often inflated or downplayed for propaganda reasons.

The Congolese army command has placed a ring of steel around casualty information. This includes expelling and arresting journalists who film or photograph the dead or wounded.

Causalities suffered by South African soldiers prompted criticism from troops on the ground about the military's failure to supply them with better weapons. None could be named as all were explicitly barred from talking to the media.

"The M23 are good. They know what they're doing," one told the Sunday Times. "I don't understand why we are holding back. There's much more modern and sophisticated weaponry that we could use against these guys, including the Rooivalk [attack helicopter]."

The UN spokesman in Goma, Alex Essome, said "the UN requested the Rooivalk helicopters two or three months ago and we only recently got approval". He said the aircraft were "expected to arrive in October".

South African Air Force officers in Goma confirmed that the construction of new hangars at the UN military base next to Goma airport was under way to accommodate the Rooivalks.

On Friday, lines of celebrating Congolese soldiers snaked along the road through positions formerly held by rebels. Some pounded drums, others raised fists chanting: "Kill, kill!"

The road was littered with rebel tank shells, shattered wooden cabins and sheared tree tops. Smoke from the morning's shelling hung over parts of the valley. A dead rebel prisoner with his hands and feet bound lay in a pit dug into their field headquarters below Three Towers. "This is how the M23 kill people," said one soldier.

"This was a difficult fight because this position is very high [on the hill]," said another. "That's why it took us nine days, supported by the Tanzanian and South African forces with artillery and sniper fire."

The region is clearly on a knife edge. At 3pm on Friday, after the latest hostilities were supposed to have ceased, the Sunday Times heard two shells fired overhead from the direction of Rwanda across Congolese army positions that had just been taken from the rebels.

"Those shells came from Rwanda," a Congolese field commander at the scene said. Minutes later, two Congolese T55 tanks were repositioned to fire at Rwanda, although no further action was taken.

Rwanda has denied shelling the DRC. But it said this week it would not hesitate to defend its territory or rule out invading the country after 10 shells hit villages at Gisenyi, a border town on Lake Kivu that is close to Goma, killing a woman and seriously injuring her baby.

Witnesses in Rwanda reported seeing a 2km column of armoured vehicles travelling from the capital, Kigali, towards Gisenyi after the shelling.

One shell landed hundreds of metres from the DRC border, rattling windows at hotels in the country less than 1km from the blast, including the Ihusi, where the Sunday Times is staying. Some blame the M23 for lobbing bombs into Rwanda, its ally and alleged backer, in a bid to draw the DRC's powerful neighbour into the war - a charge the M23 denies. Minutes after the explosion, Congolese army spokesman Colonel Olivier Hamuli told the Sunday Times: "If they invade us, we will invade them. We cannot allow them to come into Congo and not be allowed to push them back."

Yesterday, near Kibati, Congolese army colonel Mamadou Ndala Mustafa showed the Sunday Times bodies of M23 rebels as well as two bodies he claimed were Rwandan Defence Force soldiers. Rwanda denies the claims. Mustafa said his troops were continuing to push the rebels back.

M23 spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa said in a statement the rebel movement regretted the "unjust and unnecessary war" being waged by the Congolese army and the UN.

"Our forces have been instructed to defend our territory and protect all residents and their property."