KILIMANYOKA, Congo – The Congolese army said troops from Rwanda have crossed the nearby border and attacked its soldiers Wednesday in support of a minority Tutsi rebellion, as thousands of refugees cowered from the shelling just a few miles down the road.

The military spokesman for Rwanda’s Tutsi-led government immediately denied the Congolese allegations.

A helicopter gunship from the United Nations mission flew high in the sky toward the battlefield and Uruguayan peacekeepers deployed on a hilltop ridge.

The 17,000-strong peacekeeping force in Congo is stretched to the limit with the upsurge of fighting and needs more troops quickly from wherever it can get them, the U.N.’s top envoy to Congo, Alan Doss said.

The force is the U.N.’s biggest mission but its failure to halt the rebellion has enraged Congolese who attacked U.N. compounds in Goma with rocks this week. People regularly stone peacekeepers’ vehicles.

Bomb blasts, rocket fire and screaming mortars could be heard Wednesday from three miles (5 kilometers) outside the city.

The bombardment frightened tens of thousands of refugees and stirred dangerously growing anti-Tutsi sentiment in a region where decades of conflict with the majority Hutu reached a cataclysm in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. More than a half million Tutsis were slaughtered in 100 days.

“It’s the ‘long noses’ from Rwanda who are bombing us, the Rwanda Tutsi,” refugee farmer Gaspar Sebigore shouted at a village overrun by people fleeing the fighting.

The tall, sharp-featured Tutsi used to be the aristocracy in the region and held sway over the Hutu, a generally shorter, stockier tribe with flat facial features.

In the days after the genocide, more than a million Hutus fled victorious Tutsi forces in Rwanda and came to Congo where they regrouped in a brutal militia that helps fuel the continuing conflict in eastern Congo.

Congo’s army “wants to divert the international community’s attention from the fact that they are collaborating with the masterminds of the Rwandan genocide, because the conflict in Congo revolves around those genocidal forces,” Rwandan Maj. Jill Rutaremara told The Associated Press from Arusha, Tanzania, where he was attending a regional meeting on peace and security.

Congo has long alleged that Rwanda is reinforcing the fighters of renegade Congolese Gen. Laurent Nkunda, a claim U.N. officials say is unfounded.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday he was speaking to the presidents of Congo and Rwanda to resolve the crisis and that Europe and the United States plan to send diplomats to both countries to try to negotiate a peaceful solution. He spoke in Manila, the Philippines.

Congo turned to neighbor Angola for help. International Cooperation Minister Raymond Tshibanda asked the Angolan president Tuesday night for “a promise of engagement, help in saving lives, defending territorial integrity and establishing the state’s authority throughout the country.”

Angolan state radio indicated Congo was seeking primarily political and diplomatic support. But there are fears the latest crisis could again draw in neighboring states. Congo suffered back-to-back wars from 1997 to 2003, including one that embroiled eight African nations in what became a greedy rush at the country’s vast mineral riches. This natural wealth continues to fuel conflict.

Nkunda and Rwanda charge that Congo’s army fights alongside Hutu militiamen. U.N. peacekeepers say some Congolese army officers do work with the militiamen, but that the collaboration is not institutionalized.

Nkunda’s forces said Tuesday that the army had deserted numerous posts on the front line to be defended by Hutu militiamen, saying they had no choice but to fight this traditional enemy.

In Goma, the eastern provincial capital and border town that was flooded by refugees after the genocide, a police jeep crawled through town Wednesday with an officer using a megaphone to try to calm frightened residents.

“There is nothing to fear. Please go about your business,” the policeman said, urging people to open shops, half of which were shuttered. One businessman said they fear riots and looting.

The policeman told a crowd gathered on a corner to discuss the crisis to disperse. “We don’t want people standing about outside.”

Many residents said they are staying home and keeping their children from school.

“We can only pray. We are traumatized, knowing that the fighting is going on just 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the city,” said resident John Kanyunyu.

On the road to the battlefield, jeeps carrying army officers sped along, stopping to give instructions to soldiers carrying rocket launchers and assault rifles. One smashed into a motorcycle, slightly injuring two civilians among refugees who have taken over a school.

There, where many people slept in the open beside their goats and pigs, even the children were yelling anti-Tutsi comments.

“We’re scared of the Tutsis. They are too strong,” said 10-year-old Musafiri Ntsaboningba. “They’ve taken everything, even our homes now.”

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