Khartoum, Sudan ? A Darfur town under the control of Sudanese troops has been razed in apparent retaliation for a rebel attack on a nearby base of African peacekeepers. U.N. officials who inspected the town said Sunday that about 15,000 civilians had fled the area.

International aid workers and United Nations officials dismissed claims by some rebel chiefs that 100 people had died in the North Darfur town of Haskanita. The officials said the town emptied as the army moved in last Sunday, and troops started burning it on Wednesday.

A U.N. statement did not say who set fire to the ethnic African town but said Sudanese government forces took control after suspected Darfur rebels attacked the nearby base of African Union peacekeepers a week ago, killing 10 peacekeepers.

Haskanita, “which is currently under the control of the government, was completely burned down, except for a few buildings,” said the U.N. mission to Sudan.

A U.N. official who had just returned from Haskanita said it was clear that the army or its allied militias of nomad Arabs known as the janjaweed were behind it. The Arab-dominated government and the janjaweed militias are accused of regularly burning ethnic African villages as part of their counterinsurgency campaign against rebels.

The official said a full army battalion of 800 troops was stationed at the entrance of the smoldering town, which was otherwise empty.

“There’s absolutely no doubt the army and janjaweed did it,” the official said on condition of anonymity because the Sudanese government regularly expels observers who speak out against abuses.

An Associated Press reporter saw Haskanita intact last Sunday when the army moved in, though plumes of smoke could already be seen rising from several nearby villages. The town had about 7,000 people, and the other thousands fled from surrounding areas, said Orla Clinton, a spokeswoman in Sudan for the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The rebel attack on the base came amid a government offensive that had been raging for two weeks in the same region. Some rebels have said the attack on the AU peacekeepers may have happened because some rebel groups suspected the AU of collaboration with Sudanese forces, something the AU sharply denies.

U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said it would be up to the African Union to investigate who was behind the town’s destruction.

“The U.N. has no mandate to investigate security incidents,” she said in an e-mail to the AP.

Sudan’s government denies backing the janjaweed, who have been accused of the worst atrocities in Darfur. More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been chased from their homes since ethnic African rebels took up arms against the central government in February 2003, accusing it of discrimination.

The AU said it was investigating last week’s attack on its base, but could not say whether it would expand the inquiry to the town’s destruction.

Gen. Martin Agwai, the commander of the 7,000-member AU peacekeeping force in Darfur, vowed last week that he would rebuild Haskanita’s base and resend troops there soon. Large quantities of ammunition and several vehicles were looted from the base when rebels raided it.

The underfunded and ill-equipped AU force has been overwhelmed in its efforts to quell Darfur’s bloodshed. A joint AU-U.N. force of 26,000 peacekeepers is due to takeover on Jan. 1, also to be headed by Agwai.