GOMA, Congo (AP) — Panic spread in eastern Congo's main city on Thursday, with M23 rebels steadily inching closer to Goma and seizing a nearby town as they battle the Congolese army. Bombs were heard going off in the city's distant outskirts and hundreds of wounded civilians were brought in to the main hospital from the area of the fighting.

The M23 is the latest in a series of groups of ethnic Tutsi-led insurgents to rise up against Congolese forces. The group, named after the March 23 date of a 2009 accord that ended a previous Tutsi-led revolt, accuses the government of not living up to the peace deal to fully integrate Congolese Tutsis into the army and administration.