Fighting with M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo left six United Nations peacekeepers dead, UN officials said Saturday.

STORY: Rwandan-backed fighters on Sunday closed in on eastern Congo's largest city of Goma……forcing thousands of civilians to flee, and grounding flights from the local airport as government forces battled to stop the rebels from seizing the city.

Congolese troops pushed back an attempted overnight advance by Rwanda-backed rebels on the eastern city of Goma, two Congolese army sources said on Saturday, after the sound of nearby heavy bombardment rocked the city in the early hours.

Gunshots rang out Sunday night in Goma city centre, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, besieged by a militia with the Rwandan army's backing, according to AFP reporters.

The DR Congo army and M23 fighters clashed outside Goma on Friday as the UK, United States and France urged citizens to leave the main city in the country's volatile east, warning the situation could deteriorate rapidly.

Rwanda denies this. After seizing the town of Minova on Tuesday, M23 fighters have continued their offensive, moving into the town of Sake, around 20 km (12 miles) from Goma. A local administrator ...

GOMA, Congo — Panic spread in Goma on Thursday, with M23 rebels steadily inching closer to the city in eastern Congo as they battle the Congolese army. Bombs were heard going off in the distant ...

DR Congo: A hospital in Goma has taken in more than 200 wounded since early January as fighting intensifies in the eastern North Kivu province between government forces and M23 rebels, the Red ...

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) -Congolese rebels said on Sunday they had taken Goma, the biggest city in the east of the mineral-rich country, after a lightning advance that has forced thousands of people to flee and fuelled concerns of a regional war.

Gunfire broke out before dawn Monday in the centre of the besieged Congolese city of Goma, after the Democratic Republic of Congo accused neighbouring Rwanda of sending more troops across the border to help allied fighters capture the provincial capital.

Congolese rebels and allied Rwandan forces entered the outskirts of Goma on Sunday and the airport in the key eastern city was no longer in use, the top UN official in the country said. Thousands fled the fighting that also killed at least 13 peacekeepers.