From simmer to boil

Things are heating up in the Congo:

United Nations peacekeepers have killed nearly 60 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the biggest battle fought by UN troops in more than a decade.

Criticism of the operation has mounted as it has emerged that about a third of the dead may have been civilians used as human shields by the militia group being attacked.

UN commanders dismissed suggestions that the operation was retaliation for an ambush last week in which nine Bangladeshi peacekeepers were tortured and then executed.

The latest hostilities began when a battalion of Pakistani soldiers advanced on the militia base in Ituri district, scene of some of the worst atrocities in Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 3 million people have died since war erupted in 1998.

A UN spokeswoman said fighters from the so-called Nationalist and Integrationist Front fired on the Pakistanis with anti-tank artillery and heavy machine-guns.

Look, I don't know for certain what happened: UN forces might have been looking for revenge or maybe they were fired on by the "bad guys". Regardless, this get tough policy seems long overdue.