Rebel ambush kills Burundi major

BUJUMBURA, Burundi -- Fifteen government soldiers including a senior army commander have been killed in three days of fighting with ethnic Hutu rebels, military sources said.

Major Augustin Birwakanyange, the head of one of the biggest government army camps in Burundi, died in a rebel ambush at Tenga, less then 10 km (six miles) from the capital, Bujumbura, the sources said on Sunday.

Heavy fighting has raged for the last month between the army, led by minority Tutsi, and rebels of the ethnic Hutu majority at Tenga, a rebel stronghold.

The rebels are believed to be using Tenga as the launchpad for their frequent attacks on the capital's outskirts.

The sound of the fighting echoes from time to time over the city.

A military source told Reuters: "We have already dislodged the rebels from Tenga, but many of them return and as they know the field very well they can take us by surprise in the ambushes."

According to both military and civilian sources, dozens of government soldiers and more than 100 rebels have died this month in the battles over Tenga.

Burundi's eight-year-old civil war has intensified in recent weeks despite the inauguration of a transitional power-sharing Tutsi-Hutu government on November 1.

The new administration is aimed at ending an ethnic conflict that has claimed about 250,000 mostly civilian lives since 1993.

The conflict grinds on because the two main Hutu rebel groups say they were not involved in negotiations for a peace agreement mediated by former South African president Nelson Mandela and signed more than a year ago.