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Chadian president declares N'Djamena insurgents defeated

Chadian troops paraded 285 prisoners and laid out the bodies of dead insurgents at the National Assembly building yesterday to demonstrate their victory following a rebel attack on the capital, N'Djamena.

Some of the prisoners spoke of being conscripted in the rebel United Front for Change. Others said their commanders told them they would not meet any resistance when they attacked the capital before dawn on Thursday.

In just three days, the rebels charged 1,000km in pickups from their bases and came close to capturing the National Assembly building in the center of N'Djamena.

Government troops pushed them back with tanks, artillery and attack helicopters.

Chadian President Idriss Deby first presented the prisoners to the media on Thursday evening. Four tanks guarded the presidential palace yesterday.

Deby has declared victory over the rebels, following the second attempt to overthrow him in less than a month. Army officers first attempted to overthrow him while he was out of the country on March 14.

Deby, who himself seized power in a 1990 coup, has seen his authority undermined by violence across the border in Sudan's Darfur, where the rebels are based.

A Web site that said it represented the rebels reported on Thursday that rebel troops were on the move to the north and east of N'Djamena and were regrouping.

There was also a statement claiming that rebel forces now controlled two towns near the Sudanese border, Adre and Am-Timam, but the report could not be independently verified.

Deby reiterated on Thursday his complaint that the rebels were backed by the Sudanese government.

Chad has been wracked by violence for most of its history, with more than 30 years of civil war since independence from France in 1960 and different small-scale insurgencies since 1998.

The competition for power has become more intense since the country began producing oil. An Exxon Mobil-led consortium exported 133.2 million barrels of oil from Chad between October 2003 and December 2005, according to the World Bank.

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