Congo army offensive slows amid rebel-held hills

KINGI, Congo (Reuters) - A week-old army offensive against Tutsi-dominated rebels in eastern Congo has been slowed as insurgents dig into hilltop positions around their rugged stronghold, military officials said at the weekend.

Government forces threw more than 20,000 soldiers into a major operation in North Kivu province nearly a week ago aimed at forcibly disarming some 4,000 fighters loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda and ending an insurgency.

In the first few days the army seized some key positions Nkunda's forces had held for months, but progress has slowed.

"Nothing will stop the offensive ... the plan is to take all their positions to end this once and for all," Colonel Delphin Kahimbi, army operations commander in North Kivu, told Reuters.

The army began bombarding rebel-held areas on Tuesday around Kingi and Kabati villages, 25 km (17 miles) west of the provincial capital Goma, on a road north into Nkunda's fiefdom.

Artillery units blasted rebel positions on surrounding hillsides with rockets late on Saturday, silencing distant machinegun fire only momentarily before it started up elsewhere.

"We are firing artillery on demand from our infantry. We are hitting the insurgents in their positions, in their caves," Kahimbi said.

However, Major P.K. Tiwari, military spokesman in North Kivu for Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission, said the army and rebels were still fighting for control over the same ground on Sunday.

"There has been small arms fire in Kingi, Kabati, and north of Mushake (a town taken by government forces on Wednesday) since early this morning ... There has been no change," he said.

HALFHEARTED CEASEFIRE OVERTURE

Rene Abandi, a civilian spokesman for Nkunda's movement, said on Sunday that the rebels were calling for a ceasefire, but said there was little prospect of any truce yet.

"We are calling for a ceasefire in order to protect civilians in both our zones and theirs," Abandi said.said. "I"I don't think there is the will on the part of the government to do it ... so we will continue our strong resistance."

Nkunda's military commanders were unavailable for comment.

Earlier this week the United Nations urged thousands of civilians grouped around the town of Kirolirwe, 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Goma, to leave the rebel stronghold ahead of what it said would be inevitable military operations in the area.

In addition to the town's permanent population, some 3,000 families, mainly from Congo's Tutsi minority, have gathered in a refugee camp there since fighting flared again in late August after Nkunda abandoned a January peace deal and withdrew thousands of his loyalists from special mixed army brigades.

The families are among over 400,000 people displaced by fighting between the army, Nkunda loyalists, Rwandan Hutu rebels, and local Mai Mai militia in North Kivu this year.

Nkunda first led around 4,000 fighters into the bush in 2004, claiming he was doing so to protect his fellow Tutsis.

However, human rights campaigners accuse his fighters of serious abuses including forced displacement, targeted killing of civilians, and recruiting children by force.

(Editing by Alistair Thomson and Myra MacDonald)