Chad's president fights back

By Moumine Ngarmbassa

N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Troops loyal to Chad's president struck back at rebels besieging his palace on Sunday and the government said it repulsed an attack by Sudanese forces in the east that it called "a declaration of war".

In a conflicting version of the clash in the east, which opened up a fresh combat front, the rebels fighting to topple President Idriss Deby said they had taken the town of Adre on the border with Sudan's conflict-torn Darfur region.

In the capital N'Djamena, government helicopters and tanks defended Deby's fortified presidential complex against rebels in pickup trucks mounted with cannon and machine guns who stormed into the city on Saturday.

Rebel spokesman Henchi Ordjo said the army helicopters were operating from the French military base in N'Djamena, where he said President Deby was also sheltering. A base spokeswoman told Reuters it was "totally false" that Deby was there.

On the far eastern frontier, the army said it had beaten back a ground and air attack against Adre by a mixed force of Sudanese army troops and allied rebels and militia.

Deby's Minister of State for Mines and Energy, Gen. Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour, called the attack on Adre "a declaration of war" by Sudan.

Rebel spokesman Ordjo said Adre had been "liberated" by the rebel forces. He said the northern town of Faya Largeau had also been captured but there was no independent confirmation of this.

Sudan's government denied the accusations from its neighbor that it had backed the offensive by an alliance of Chadian insurgent groups, who denounce Deby as corrupt and dictatorial.

The rebel assault, the second to hit the Chadian capital in almost two years, sent France and other foreign governments scrambling to evacuate their nationals from the oil-producing central African country, which has a history of wars and coups.

CITY CUT BY FIGHTING

Radio France International quoted the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres estimating that several hundred people had been injured in two days of confused street fighting.

France Info radio said two French soldiers had been slightly hurt while protecting French and other foreign nationals.

Chadian officials blamed Sudan for the fighting, saying Khartoum was trying to sabotage the imminent deployment of a European Union peacekeeping force to eastern Chad that is tasked with protecting thousands of refugees and aid workers.

Residents in N'Djamena said heavy weapons and machine gun fire erupted before dawn near the presidential palace.

"The city is cut into two," said Reuters reporter Moumine Ngarmbassa in N'Djamena, adding it did not appear the rebels controlled all of the capital. "People are frightened that this fighting will go on," he said by phone.