UN peacekeepers probe Darfur killings, raise death toll to 17

UN peacekeepers said Thursday they were probing killings this week in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, raising the death toll to 17 after doctors initially reported that militiamen shot dead nine people.

The shootings took place in the village of Al-Dalij in the state of Central Darfur on Monday, a doctors' committee close to the country's protest movement said, blaming the "massacre" on Janjaweed militiamen.

The Janjaweed, a militia accused by rights groups of widespread abuses in Darfur at the height of the conflict in the region, has been absorbed into Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

On Tuesday, the doctors committee said nine people were "killed by bullets and sticks of the Janjaweed," adding that two more people had been killed but their identity was unknown.

On Thursday, the UN-African Union peacekeeping mission deployed in Darfur since 2007 said it had sent a team to Al-Dalij to investigate Monday's events.

"The mission met with the affected persons and local ...