A small beleaguered force of U.N. peacekeepers appealed Wednesday for reinforcements to stop them from being trapped in Rwanda's carnage.
The force sent the desperate message as battles between army troops and rebels hit their most vicious level in a month of bloodletting that has killed up to 200,000 people.Gangs of tribal backers of the Hutu-dominated army continued slaughtering civilians.
As mortar bombs hit the airport in the capital Kigali, wounding another U.N. soldier, officers said they were worried a mysterious "third force" was intent on driving them out.
"We protested to government forces and the rebels about the airport shelling but both deny being responsible, which raises the possibility of a third force," an officer told Reuters by telephone.
The airport on Kigali's eastern edge is the only reliable link to the outside world for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Rwanda. Government troops based there refuse to leave it under U.N. control.
The U.N. Security Council slashed UNAMIR's strength from 2,500 to a bare minimum of 270 shortly after renewed civil war and massacres broke out following the killing of President Juvenal Habyarimana in a rocket attack on his plane on April 6.
Aid workers said battles since Tuesday were the worst in nearly a month of deadly fighting that has also touched off a flood of more than 300,000 refugees.