Rebels besieging Rwanda's capital of Kigali pushed into the city's center Monday and captured army headquarters, U.N. military observers said.
Meanwhile, rebel forces on the move in southwestern Rwanda anticipate a military showdown if French troops insist on establishing a no-fight zone in the region."If the French create that zone, they are only protecting the Hutu army and its killer militias," said James Rwego, Brussels representative for the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front.
After a weekend of furious mortar and small-arms battle, rebel troops in Kigali captured the Ministry of Defense and army headquarters as well as at least two Roman Catholic church compounds that were in government territory, said U.N. military spokesman Jean-Guy Plante.
In recent weeks, many people who had been sheltering in the church properties were killed by civilian militiamen armed and trained by the army.
With the capital in its hands, the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front would be able to turn its forces toward the western swath where the self-proclaimed Rwandan government has taken refuge.
Gen. Jean-Claude Lafourcade, commander of a French rescue operation in Rwanda, urged other nations Sunday to intervene in the bitter ethnic battles. The rebels are mostly members of the Tutsi ethnic group; the government is led by rival Hutus.
"If there is not help soon, we will face very grave humanitarian problems," he said. "If Kigali falls, there will be massacres and a flight of refugees to the west."
The rebels also are close to overrunning the southwestern town of Butare, where French forces and rebels had their first skirmish Sunday, Lafourcade said.
The rebels warned of more fighting if the French go ahead with plans to set up a "safe zone" for refugees near Butare.
"If the French create that zone, they are only protecting the Hutu army and its killer militias," said James Rwego, a rebel spokesman in Brussels.
"We want to avoid any confrontation, but if the French get between us and the killers, we anticipate trouble," he said.
French paratroopers were evacuating 270 civilians from the path of the rebel assault on Butare when rebel troops at a roadblock spotted a government deserter in the French convoy and opened fire.
French troops responded in a firefight that lasted less than a minute, said Col. Didier Thibault. No French troops were injured; there was no word on rebel casualties.