Central Africa Clashes Kill 30, 'Mainly Civilians'

At least 30 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in fighting between mainly Christian militia and predominantly Muslim rebels in the strife-torn Central African Republic, police said Wednesday.

The victims, "the majority of them civilians" caught in the crossfire, died during clashes Tuesday that also left more than 10 people wounded in the central town of Dekoa, police said.

The fighting pitted so-called "anti-balaka" militia against members of the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel group that seized power for 10 months in March 2013, unleashing a wave of brutal tit-for-tat killings in the former French colony.

Police said the "anti-balaka" -- which means "anti-machete" in the local Sango language -- attacked the Seleka positions early in the morning on Tuesday in the town some 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of the capital Bangui.

But the fighting escalated when the Seleka called in reinforcements and lasted more than four hours, police added.

"Most of the victims were civilians who were hit by stray bullets," the police source said.

Thousands of people have been killed and around a quarter of the impoverished country's 4.6 million people have been displaced by the violence unleashed by the Seleka coup.

Some 6,000 African and 2,000 French peacekeepers have struggled to keep the violence in check.

The U.N. Security Council is expected on Thursday to authorize the deployment of about 12,000 peacekeepers in September to help stop the bloodshed.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that the conflict has turned into "ethno-religious cleansing," with lynchings, decapitations and sexual violence going unpunished.

On Wednesday, a French army spokesman said an initial contingent of 55 European Union troops have arrived in the capital Bangui.

They were conducting their first patrols in sensitive parts of the city, with the aim of "maintaining security and training local officers", Francois Guillermet told Agence France Presse.

The European Union said last week it would send around 800 troops -- its first major ground operation in six years -- to bolster the French and African peacekeepers. They are expected to be fully operational by the end of May.