Congo rebels appear to pull back

RWINDI, Congo — Rebels in Congo pulled hundreds of fighters back from several front-line positions as promised on Wednesday in what the U.N. said was a welcome step toward brokering peace in the volatile nation.

Elsewhere, however, U.N. forces on patrol exchanged fire with pro-government Mai Mai militiamen who attacked them with machine-gun fire in Kibitutu, a village about 45 miles north of the regional capital, Goma.

Further north, two charred bodies and scattered debris from looted shops littered the red earth roads of the army-occupied hilltop village of Kirumba, one day after the army clashed with the Mai Mai, a group normally allied with the government. The violence was a testament to the chaotic nature of Congo's latest war.

Years of sporadic violence in eastern Congo intensified in August, and fighting between the army and fighters loyal to rebel leader Laurent Nkunda has displaced at least 250,000 people. Nkunda says he is protecting Tutsis from Hutus who fled to Congo after Rwanda's 1994 genocide. But critics say he is more interested in power and Congo's mineral wealth.

Nkunda told U.N. envoy Olusegun Obasanjo over the weekend he was committed to a cease-fire and U.N. peace efforts. But his troops continued to gobble up territory earlier this week in the remote hills north of Goma.

In a turnaround, rebels announced Tuesday that their fighters would immediately withdraw 25 miles from hotspots north of Goma to prevent further fighting.

U.N. peacekeeping spokesman Col. Jean-Paul Dietrich confirmed Wednesday's pullback and called it "a positive step." He said rebels withdrew from three fronts around Kanyabayonga, about 80 miles north of Goma.

An Associated Press reporter verified the withdrawal on one of the fronts just south of Kanyabayonga at Rwindi, the northern headquarters of Virunga National Park, home to some of the world's last mountain gorillas.

On Wednesday, Rwindi's main road was empty, with rebels visible only a few dozen miles to the south at a park station checkpoint that had been abandoned by rangers. Herds of elephants roamed fields of pristine green savannah grass in the area. Baboons scurried across empty roads.

The pullback could pave the way for talks on ending the crisis, which has forced nearly 300,000 people from their homes since fighting between the army and Nkunda's rebels broke out in August.

Congo's war is profoundly complex and will be difficult to solve. Much of the countryside is lawless, at the mercy of militias or anyone with a gun.