Chad rebels say occupy town closer to capital

Chadian rebels mounting what they say is a new offensive against President Idriss Deby advanced deeper into the country from the east on Sunday, briefly occupying the town of Am-Dam, rebel spokesmen said.

Another rebel column attacked the eastern town of Goz-Beida on Saturday, engaging government troops in heavy fighting before pulling back towards the Sudanese border 70 km (40 miles) away.

Oil-producing Chad and Sudan accuse each other of backing insurgents who have attacked both capitals this year.

"We occupied the town of Am-Dam this morning ... We did not meet much resistance," Ali Gadaye, spokesman for the rebel National Alliance, told Reuters by satellite phone.

"We have just left Am-Dam town. We are carrying on."

Am-Dam is a small town about 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Goz-Beida. It is 700 km (440 miles) by road from the western capital N'Djamena, which rebels last attacked in February.

Abderaman Koulamallah, whose Union for Democratic Change (UDC) is part of the National Alliance, told Reuters by phone from France that one rebel column was just west of Am-Dam.

The separate column that attacked Goz-Beida pulled out of the town after fighting with government forces on Saturday but was still in the area, he said. A Reuters reporter saw that column numbered up to 100 vehicles before that attack.

There was no independent confirmation of the rebels' location. Koulamallah said government forces had now taken up positions on the main road to N'Djamena. "We could run up against them in the coming hours or days," he said.

But David Buchbinder, a researcher for U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, told Reuters in Goz-Beida that a repeat of the rebels' February march on N'Djamena was improbable.

"It's already into the start of the rainy season, so they're taking a big risk the longer they stay in the country because the rain blocks their means of retreat to Sudan," he said.

HIT AND RUN ATTACKS

"It seems like it will be hit and run attacks in the east for the next week or so to demonstrate their relevance. The general consensus is that an attack on N'Djamena is unlikely due to the rainy season ... From Am-Dam they can go up to Abeche, west to N'Djamena or back down to Goz-Beida," he said.

Government reinforcements started leaving N'Djamena for the east on Saturday, Information Minister Mahamat Hissene said. Army sources said the reinforcements included heavy weaponry.

Chad army troops in pickups mounted with heavy guns or laden with rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) raced round Goz-Beida in pickup trucks on Sunday, kicking up plumes of dust, and appeared to reinforce defensive positions on the road northeast to Sudan.

Irish EU troops protecting refugee camps under the European Union's EUFOR mission in eastern Chad patrolled the periphery of Goz-Beida as well as surrounding refugee camps including Djabal, where they came under RPG fire during Saturday's fighting.

They returned "warning fire" at the unidentified attackers.

Metre-wide craters from the RPG blasts were visible outside the sprawling camp on Sunday as Irish troops briefly deployed to reassure its 15,000 refugees from Sudan's Darfur war.

Children, women in colourful robes carrying plastic jerrycans of water on their heads and men leading donkeys laden with firewood waved cheerfully at EUFOR troops, whose presence has made at least some improvement to the dire insecurity.

Some of the town's mud-built walls were marked by RPG explosions. Medical workers said at least 24 people were wounded in the attack and the government said one woman was killed.

A thin trail of smoke rose from the smouldering remains of a compound belonging to German aid agency GTZ, whose fuel store caught fire in the fighting. Other aid compounds were looted.