Chad's Deby says 700 killed in February rebel attack

Fighting triggered by a rebel assault on Chad's capital N'Djamena last month killed some 700 people, President Idriss Deby said in comments broadcast on Thursday.

Deby had said 400 civilians were killed in N'Djamena during the fighting a month ago. He told French television station France 24 the new figure included soldiers and those killed in the nearby town of Massaguet.

"The total death toll is around 700 including N'Djamena and Massaguet, the town some 80 km east of N'Djamena. Those were the two martyrs' towns," he said, according to an advance copy of the interview.

Rebels opposed to Deby attacked N'Djamena on February 2 and besieged his presidential palace. Government forces pushed the insurgents back after two days of heavy fighting.

Deby has fought off several rebel bids to end his 18-year rule in the central African oil producer and has repeatedly blamed the president of neighbouring Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, for backing the rebel offensives.