The Angolan news service has also reported rebel incursions in Bia, Huambo and Kwanza Sul provinces in the west, but most of the incidents occurred before May 15.

The rebel incursion sparked Russian fears of a brutal Chechnya-style conflict.

He, like many residents of Bujumbura, tried to dismiss the recent rebel incursion as a rare occurrence.

The mujahideen were deemed responsible for the decapitation of six young Russian conscripts caught in Dagestan during a rebel incursion.

The rebel incursion into Dagestan was an unwelcome challenge to the Kremlin, already preoccupied by political intrigue.

But while Mr. Déby looks across the desert to Sudan for the architects of the movement to oust him, many Chadians see deep domestic roots for the rebel incursion.

The idea was to make it look like another rebel incursion.

They invaded again in 1999 after a Chechen rebel incursion into neighboring Dagestan and the death of nearly 300 people in apartment bombings in Moscow and southern Russia.

Still, the rebel incursion was a sign of how shaky Mr. Déby's grasp on power had become.

Uzbekistan, the region's most populous country with 24 million people, called up more troops in March and is trying to develop a better-equipped, more mobile force to counter rebel incursions.