10 killed in suspected rebel attack in Burundi capital

Suspected rebels attacked the Burundian capital, killing four soldiers and six civilians, a government spokesman said Friday.

Rebels from the National Liberation Force are suspected in the attack Thursday night in Bujumbura — the most serious rebel assault in more than a year, government spokesman Hassa Mossi said.

Mortar explosions and gunfire could be heard for nearly an hour, he said. The military believes the fighters brought the mortars and small arms used in the attack from Congo. Government forces also recovered six guns, Mossi said.

The tiny East African nation is struggling to overcome a 13-year conflict that claimed more than 250,000 lives. It was sparked when paratroopers from the Tutsi ethnic minority — which had long dominated politics and the military — assassinated the country's first democratically elected president, a member of the Hutu majority, in October 1993.

The National Liberation Force is the only rebel group that has not signed a peace deal with President Pierre Nkurunziza's government. He was elected democratically in 2005.