Government forces put down an apparent coup attempt in the Congolese capital, battling attackers believed loyal to former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in the most serious political strife to hit the city since the end of Congo's five-year war.
The government refused to characterize Sunday's deadly clashes as an attempted putsch. But Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba said the attack would not destabilize President Joseph Kabila's government -- a national-unity administration struggling to reassert control over its vast, rebellion-splintered territory following the 1998-2003 war.
"We have the situation under control," government spokesman Vital Kamerhe said.
Fighters still loyal to Mobutu, Congo's late Cold War dictator, were among those who launched Sunday's "coup attempt," British Ambassador Jim Atkinson said.
Mobutu was overthrown in 1997 by then-ruler Laurent Kabila, Joseph Kabila's father. As Laurent Kabila's insurgents entered Kinshasa, thousands of Mobutu loyalists scattered, and many now live in surrounding countries.
The attacks began before dawn Sunday and lasted through four hours of gunfire that kept most Kinshasa inhabitants indoors. Hundreds of Congolese took to the streets to cheer government troops when the shooting eased in early afternoon as the government apparently overcame the attacks.
The president was believed in the country Sunday but his precise location was not known.
"I have it on good authority that he's safe," Atkinson said.
Congolese officials said the simultaneous attacks targeted an army camp near Kabila's offices, a military airport and a naval shipyard on the Congo river, as well as the national radio and television headquarters.
Congolese forces apprehended 12 assailants, Kamerhe said, adding that untold numbers of the civilian-clothed attackers disappeared into the city with their weapons. He said the battle killed one soldier and wounded two others.
One injured assailant fled into a UN building in Kinshasa, but was later turned over to Congolese authorities, said Hamadoun Toure, a UN spokesman.
The assault represents the first major threat to the power-sharing government meant to reunify and stabilize Congo after the devastating five-year civil war in which an estimated 3 million people died, mainly through war-induced hunger and disease.
Kinshasa was spared the worst of the fighting in the war. Sunday's attacks represent the most serious political violence to hit the city since rebels traveled from their bush headquarters to the capital to join Kabila's government last year.
After the fighting, authorities seized six rocket-propelled grenades, two mortar tubes, 30 grenades, 75 AK-47 assault rifles and thousands of rounds of ammunition, the army said.
Congo officials said the government would continue its mission to move Congo beyond the war, which saw foreign-backed rebels take control of the east and much of the north.
"This event will not destabilize the government. Everybody's still working together," Mbemba said.
Thousands of soldiers loyal to Mobutu's government fled across the Congo River to Brazzaville after the ex-leader was ousted in 1997.
Many of the ex-Mobutu loyalists are disgruntled over their virtual exclusion from Congo's peace deal -- preventing them from sharing in proceeds from the rich diamond and gold mines and lush forests of a country the size of Western Europe.
"They've infiltrated into Kinshasa with weapons, presumably over the past days and weeks," Atkinson said.
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