Chad rebels vow fresh offensive

N'Djamena: Thousands of civilians fled Chad's capital N'Djamena on Monday after rebels broke off a two-day assault but threatened a fresh attempt to topple President Idriss Deby.

Despite the fears of further attack, the riverside capital of the landlocked oil-producing central African state was relatively quiet. Vehicles filled with soldiers patrolled the city streets and army helicopters flew overhead.

Deby's government, reeling from the latest strike on the city in under two years, said it had beaten off more than 2,000 insurgents who stormed in on Saturday in armed pickup trucks.

The rebel attack, which Chad said was backed by Sudan, drew international condemnation. It forced the European Union to delay the deployment of a EU peacekeeping force to eastern Chad to protect refugees from the war in Sudan's Darfur region.

The UN Security Council urged the international community on Monday to support Chad's government against the rebels.

The government insisted it controlled the city. But the rebels, who denounce Deby's 18-year rule as corrupt and dictatorial, warned N'Djamena's population to flee their homes.

They said their withdrawal from the city late on Sunday was "tactical" and that they were regrouping for another attack. "We're at the gates of the city," rebel spokesman Abderamane Koullamalah told Radio France International (RFI).

Dead bodies littered the city's streets and buildings were pockmarked with bullet holes after a weekend of fierce fighting, as Sudan denied claims by Deby that it was backing the rebellion.

General Mahamat Ali Abdullah, operational commander of government forces, told AFP the rebels had been "completely routed.... Time is going to show that they have been defeated."

But a military source later spoke of a rebel column, comprising around 30 pick-up trucks, stationed at a northern entrance to the city.

Chadian government forces had used tanks and helicopter gunships on Sunday to repel rebel fighters who had surrounded the presidential palace where Deby was holed up.

Most serious

Rebel spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah, contacted on Monday by satellite telephone, said the insurgency - the most serious that Deby has faced since coming to power in 1990 in this central African state - was far from over.

"We have pulled out of the city and we are waiting for the civilian population to be evacuated," Koulamallah said, adding that the rebels were surrounding the capital that is home to an estimated 700,000 people.

"We opted to leave the city, but we certainly will go back on the offensive," he said.