KIVU - The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s army said yesterday it had launched strikes against renegade fighters in the volatile eastern border region with Rwanda, killing at least 28 insurgents during clashes lasting several hours.

The clashes came as Rwandan Foreign Minister Dr Charles Murigande met his Congolese counterpart Mbusa Nyamwisi in Kinshasa to discuss the unrest.

Murigande who flew to Congo yesterday is expected to meet President Laurent Kabila today. DRC Government forces launched the assault on fighters loyal to dissident Gen.Laurent Nkunda late last Sunday near Karuba, some 30 km west of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

Exchanges of machine gun and heavy weapons fire lasted several hours with clashes continuing throughout Monday morning, army officials said.

"Up to now these are preventative strikes designed to allow us to control the terrain,” the army’s commander of operations, Colonel Delphin Kahimbi, told said, adding that the bodies of 28 Nkunda loyalists were recovered following the attacks.

No independent verification of the death toll was immediately available. Reuters