U.N.-backed troops battle Ugandan rebels

? Thousands of Congolese troops backed by U.N. peacekeepers battled Ugandan rebels hiding in Congo’s restive east, leaving 35 rebels and one U.N. soldier dead, the U.N. said.

Some 3,500 troops supported by 600 Indian peacekeepers fought the rebels Sunday near the eastern city of Beni, U.N. spokesman Hans-Jakob Reichen said.

The fighting was part of a sweep by Congolese forces in a region largely outside state control since a 1998-2002 war that drew in armies from six neighboring nations. Government troops are trying to re-establish authority nationwide before elections next year, battling homegrown militia fighters and rebels from neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

Some 15,000 U.N. troops are in Congo to help provide security in a country the size of Western Europe and wracked by years of war, army revolts and coups d’etat.