Rebels fighting to oust Democratic Republic of the Congo's President Laurent Kabila said yesterday they had killed 210 loyalist troops, including 80 Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe has denied the claims.
Rebel commanders said the deaths occurred on Monday after an assault by Mr Kabila's forces near Kabinda, a key staging post on the route to the diamond city of Mbuji-Mayi, which rebels are targeting.
"Those killed included the Zimbabwean area commander in Kabinda zone," a rebel commander, Mr Hugo Ilondo, said from rebel headquarters in Kisangani.
However, Zimbabwe denied that it had lost an army battalion. "That is a lie, just propaganda," the Zimbabwe National Army's chief spokesman, Col Chancellor Diye, said. "No such thing happened because if such a big thing had happened the commanders in Kinshasa would have told us."
Last August rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda started a campaign to overthrow Mr Kabila. Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and Chad have all deployed troops to support him.
Earlier reports named the battalion commander as Maj Stephen Madezokere. Rebels said he was shot in his communications car and two tanks and two personnel carriers were captured, along with four prisoners.
The rebels said documents recovered showed Zimbabwean identity and they expected to find more bodies in the bush.
Any big troop losses will increase pressure on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who has faced domestic criticism for his country's involvement in the Congo war and for previous losses of Zimbabwean troops.
Rwandan officers backing the rebels said the battle would make it easier for the rebels, who control towns in the north and east of the country, to advance on Kabinda, some 60 miles east of Mbuji-Mayi.
After a lull of several months, the rebels are advancing on two fronts, north-west from the city of Kisangani towards the Congo river town of Mbandaka and south towards Mbuji-Mayi and Lubumbashi, Congo's copper capital and Mr Kabila's ethnic base.