Luanda - Angolan rebels killed four civilians in an attack on a town near the capital, Luanda, and government soldiers killed 10 of the rebels in ensuing fighting, a military source said on Tuesday.
The attack occurred early on Monday in Catete, about 60km east of Luanda, an official at army headquarters said, without stating whether the government side suffered any casualties.
The town controls access to the coastal capital from the east.
A siege of Catete by rebels of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, Unita, in July 1999 left several dozen people dead.
Angola has been engulfed in civil war almost without interruption since independence from Portugal in 1975.
A major stake in the war is control of the country's immense oil and mineral wealth, most notably its diamond resources.
A peace accord signed in 1994 in Lusaka, Zambia, was scrapped after major fighting resumed in late 1998.
Unita claimed last week that its forces killed 261 government troops in seven of the country's 18 provinces, including the diamond-rich northern provinces of Malange and Uige. It is not known how many losses Unita suffered. - Sapa-AFP