GOZ-BEIDA, Chad (Reuters) - Chadian rebels mounting what they say is a new offensive against President Idriss Deby advanced deeper into the country from the east on Sunday, briefly occupying the town of Am-Dam, rebel spokesmen said.
"We occupied the town of Am-Dam this morning," Ali Gadaye,spokesman for the rebel National Alliance, told Reuters bysatellite phone. "We did not meet much resistance."
Am-Dam is a small town about 120 km (75 miles) northwest ofGoz-Beida, which a rebel column attacked on Saturday. But isstill some 700 km (440 miles) by road from the western capitalN'Djamena, which rebels attacked in February.
After occupying the town the rebel forces moved on in thedirection of the capital, Abderaman Koulamallah, whose Unionfor Democratic Change (UDC) is part of the National Alliance,told Reuters by phone from France.
"Our forces are on the far side of Am-Dam, a little to thewest," he said.
Koulamallah said the rebel column near Am-Dam was differentto the one that attacked Goz-Beida, near the Sudanese border,on Saturday. Aid compounds used by humanitarian agencieshelping refugees from Sudan and Chad were looted in the attack.
Koulamallah said the column that attacked Goz-Beida wasstill in the Goz-Beida area although it had pulled out of thetown on Saturday after fighting with government forces.
A Reuters reporter who saw that column before Saturday'sattack on Goz-Beida said it numbered up to 100 vehicles, mostlypickups, including some with machine guns mounted on the back.
(Reporting by Finbarr O'Reilly; additional reporting byAlistair Thomson in Dakar; Editing by Jon Boyle)
