Ethnic Hutu rebels killed four people and burned cattle alive in their stables in an attack on a Burundian military post outside the capital Bujumbura.
"The rebels were very numerous, they attacked from all sides," a local official told reporters by phone from the site of the attack. "They also burned dozens of cows and goats alive in their stables. It was atrocious, " the official said.
Rebels fighting to topple the Tutsi-dominated government, claimed responsibility for the attack on the position about 25 miles north of Bujumbura.
"Our aim was to take arms and ammunition and we found what we wanted," a senior rebel commander claimed. Witnesses said three Burundian army soldiers and a civilian were killed.
Burundi is entering its eighth year of a brutal civil war which has killed an estimated 200,000 people, mostly civilians. Insurgent activity has intensified in the provinces of the tiny Central African country since government troops' expulsion of rebel forces from the suburbs of the capital in February.