Rwandan rebels blitzed the government-held center of Kigali Friday, inflicting dozens of casualties and hitting the Red Cross hospital and public market with mortar fire.
Far to the west, the French-led "Operation Turquoise" made headway as about 50 soldiers who spent their first night at a Tutsi refugee camp near the town of Cyangugu returned to their base camp in eastern Zaire, Paris military sources said."A bomb just fell on the emergency block," said Philippe Gaillard, chief delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the capital.
Gaillard said dozens of wounded had been brought into the hospital in the government-held center of the capital since the rebel Rwanda Patriotic Front began pounding the area late Thursday.
No Red Cross workers were hurt. Medical staff and anybody who could walk scurried for cover in a makeshift bomb shelter after the mortar bomb hit the hospital triage room.
Witnesses said there were heavy casualties when mortar bombs rained down on the downtown market, where tens of thousands of civilians lingered in Kigali to buy food.
The bombardment was the latest in about a week of fierce assaults by rebels trying to fight their way up Mount Kigali, the last piece of high ground controlled by government forces.
Meanwhile, about 4,000 mainly Tutsi civilians turned out in an RPF-organized demonstration in the rebel-held village of Kabuga outside Kigali to protest French intervention.
"Non, non, Mitterrand!" chanted the placard-waving marchers - who appeared to be the only residents left in the deserted, bullet-riddled village - as RPF soldiers mingled with them.
The RPF vows to fight French troops if they see them, because they blame Paris for arming and training government forces, including Hutu death squads.
In Paris, military sources said "Operation Turquoise" had gotten under way with 50 scout soldiers staying overnight in a camp full of Tutsis near the southwestern town of Cyangugu.
Gaillard said the Tutsis, numbering about 7,000, were the only trapped civilians from the minority clan left in the vicinity of Cyangugu.
"I understand missions resumed this morning," an army spokesman said.
"The idea is to continue checking refugee camps and Roman Catholic missions and make a census of all people seeking help."
Brigadier Jean-Claude Lafourcade, the force commander, left Paris early Friday to join his troops as they continued their buildup in Zaire.
Some 500 French troops backed by Mirage and Jaguar fighters had arrived by Thursday night at two rear bases in the border area of Zaire. They are due to be up to full strength of 2,500 by the weekend.