Kinshasa, Congo, Feb 26, SPA -- Gunmen killed nine U.N. Bangladeshipeacekeeping troops in an ambush in northeastern Congo, thedeadliest assault ever on the 6-year-old mission trying toshepherd the nation out of the chaos of a civil war thatleft some 3 million dead. The attack occurred Friday near the town of Kafe as 21Bangladeshi peacekeepers were patrolling in the area of acamp housing families displaced by persistent fighting inCongo's lawless Ituri province, U.N. spokesman Mamadou Bahsaid. The assailants are believed to have been hiding in thethick grass along the roadside and pounced on the patrol asit drove past, said Col. Dominique Demange, head of U.N.troops in Congo. The gunmen escaped before peacekeeperscould fully react. The United Nations sent an attack helicopter and a rapidreaction force, but bad weather limited theireffectiveness, Demange said. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the"reprehensible and criminal attack" and called on Congo'stransitional government to bring the killers to justice,his spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York. Annan said the Congo peacekeeping mission would not bedeterred from carrying out its mandate. Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed and Prime MinisterKhaleda Zia issued messages of "condolence and profoundsorrow." The peacekeepers had arrived in Kafe, 20 miles (32kilometers) northwest of the provincial capital of Bunia,on Jan. 23 to help secure and feed and administer medicineto people who'd fled the fighting.--SPA1031 Local Time 0731 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/242397