950803

23 soldiers found

dead in Senegal

DAKAR: Twenty-three Senegalese soldiers missing for a week following an ambush by suspected separatists have been found dead, officials said on Wednesday.

The bodies were found Tuesday, all but two of them in a common grave, the officials said.

The ambush took place near a rebel camp in a wooded area about 20 kilometers from Zinguinchor, the main town in the southern Casamance region.

It is believed to have been carried out by members of the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance, the officials said.-AFP