UNITA claims government offensive underway

Angolan government forces have launched a major offensive against UNITA rebel positions in an apparent bid to turn the tide of the country's civil war, the Associated Press quoted a UNITA communique as saying on Friday. The army, backed by artillery and jet bombers, began the attacks on Tuesday. Government forces moved out of the besieged central highland cities of Kuito and Huambo towards heavily-fortified UNITA bases at Andulo and Bailundo, less than 100 km to the north, the communique said. Meanwhile, troops in the besieged city of Malanje, 300 km east of Luanda, are moving along a main road which leads south towards Andulo, suggesting a pincer movement against the rebel stronghold, AP reported. The army is also heading east out of Malanje, the communique said, along a strategic north-south road that links UNITA's central highland strongholds with the rich diamond fields in the northeast that supply the rebels' revenue. On the northern front in the countryside around Uige, 240 km northeast of Luanda, UNITA positions which the government believes guard rebel supply lines from neighbouring Congo are under attack, according to the communique.