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Zimbabwe Jet Downed - Say Congo Rebels
March 21, 1999
Eshimba - Congo-Rebels fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo claimed
on Thursday shot down a Zimbabwean MiG jet fighter, near the scene of a battle
where they also claim to have killed 80 Zimbabwean troops this week.
There was no word on whether the pilot had been killed or had ejected from the plane. Rebel forces say they 'wiped out' a Zimbabwean battalion near Kabinda, on Monday, killing 80 troops and their commander, as well as around 130 other loyalist troops.
Journalists taken to the battle scene on Thursday in rolling Savannah close to Eshimba, a rebel-held village some 40 km northeast of the strategic government -held town of Kabinda, said they saw at least 50 dead bodies, including many Zimbabweans lying by the road. Zimbabwean beer bottles and newspapers were scattered on the ground and letters in the dead soldiers' pockets showed many were Zimbabwean.
Two tanks and two armoured personnel carriers were captured in the assault. Rebels said the deaths occurred after an assault by Kabila's forces near Kabinda.
Zimbabwe on Wednesday, denied it had lost an army battalion. Locals seemed to have deserted Eshimba, leaving it to hundreds of Rwandan and Congolese soldiers.
A bomb crater several metres deep showed what rebels said was the effect of an air raid on the village by another Zimbabwean MiG on Thursday. The rebels hold much of the north and east of the vast central African state, formerly known as Zaire, after a campaign against Kabila that started last August.
Any significant Zimbabwean losses will increase pressure on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who has faced a chorus of domestic criticism for his intervention in the Congo war and for previous losses of Zimbabwean troops, political analysts say.-Reuters
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