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CAR troops retake airport
07/03/2007 10:31 - (SA)
Bangui - Central African Republic forces (FACA) on Tuesday peacefully took back control of the airfield at Birao that they had abandoned following rebel attacks at the weekend, both sides said.
"FACA seized the airport without a fight. There was apparently no-one there," a military source in the Central African Republic capital Bangui said.
"We will be able to evacuate the wounded and bring in fresh troops."
A spokesperson for the rebel Union for Democratic Forces for the Rally (UFDR), Hamad Hamadin said: "We are in the surrounding area. FACA is at the airfield itself."
On Monday, the UFDR said it held the airfield, which is located about 10km outside Birao, in the northeast of the country.
Hamadin also claimed French jet fighters had attacked several UFDR positions on Tuesday, but FACA sources denied this.
French Mirage F1 jets on Sunday opened fire on rebel vehicles after UFDR forces launched an attack on a small deployment of French troops at Birao.
- AFP
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