Hutu extremists in Rwanda mounted their biggest raid to date yesterday, freeing from prison more than 600 men accused of genocide.
The attack on the jail at Bulinga, 45 km north-west of Kigali, was the latest brazen success for the recent Hutu rebel strategy of targeting prisons which hold more than 100,000 people - almost all Hutu men - accused of participating in the slaughter of Rwanda's Tutsis three years ago.
Earlier this week, a similar raid allowed more than 100 accused mass murderers to escape from a prison in north-west Rwanda.
At least 10 people, including four guards, were killed in yesterday's attack by about 300 Hutu rebels armed with automatic weapons, machetes and spears, according to the army.
The local military commander, Col Balthazar Ndengeyingha, said the early morning raid was swift and successful as all the prisoners escaped. The attack is a damaging blow to the government's attempts to quell the growing insurgency, especially as it came in the heart of the country which suggests that Hutu rebels feel confident enough to move around at will.
Rwanda has suffered a new rise in bloodletting and instability since the mass return of Hutu refugees from the former Zaire after the Rwandan army's invasion a year ago.
No longer able to seek shelter across the border, extremist militias have regrouped inside Rwanda itself. But until now they concentrated their attacks on the north-western regions of Gisenyi and Ruhengeri.
The area was the stronghold of Rwanda's late Hutu president, Juvenal Habyarimana, whose murder by even more extreme elements of his own party kicked the genocide into motion. About 300 people were killed at Gisenyi prison during a rebel operation a fortnight ago to try to free hundreds of prisoners.
The army said more than 1,000 rebels attacked the jail by trying to blast their way through walls and burn down buildings. Most of the dead were prisoners.
Hutu extremists also tried to seize Gisenyi airport. They were driven off by the army, but about 80 people were killed. The Rwandan military commander in the north-west, Col Nyamwasa Kayumba, estimates the rebel force at about 10,000 men.
The army accuses Hutu civilians of sheltering the extremists. Hutu rebels are also targeting Tutsi genocide survivors who are murdered in their homes, in some cases to prevent them testifying at genocide trials. Local authorities believe that in some cases Hutu neighbours identified the victims to their killers.
The army has responded with attacks on areas where the rebels are concentrated but at the cost of civilian lives. Last week the army denied accusations by a Hutu exile group of killing 8,000 civilians in a cave in the north-west.
The government said the area around the volcanic caves in the Virunga mountains is a favoured base for Hutu extremists.
Beside the vast numbers of people held in Rwandan prisons, the international tribunal in Tanzania trying the leaders of the mass slaughter is holding 21 of the most notorious organisers and killers, including Rwanda's former prime minister.