Rebels claimed Monday to have killed eight government soldiers and wounded three others in an ambush in southeastern Chad and also accused the army of atrocities against civilians.
"The ambush took place on December 16 about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Koukou'angarana on the Goz-Beida road" in Ouaddai province, the Renewed Chad National Front (FNTR) said in a statement released to AFP in Gabon.
The FNTR charged that President Idriss Deby's army was guilty of atrocities against local people in the province, including the recent execution of three villagers for refusing "to hand over their property to government troops".
The rebel communiqué urged human rights groups to "investigate massacres of civilians" by government soldiers.
The FNTR claims to have some 400 active fighters.
It is, however, less active than a rebel force harassing government troops in the arid mountainous Tibesti region on the northern border with Libya, the Democratic Movement for Justice in Chad (MDJT) -- LIBREVILLE (AFP)
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