NEW DELHI: Indian troops deployed under the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo have thwarted an attack on one of their posts by armed rebels, killing three of the attackers and wounding another in the process. Two Indian soldiers were also injured in the attack."The attack, by around 30 Mai Mai rebels on the Lubero post in the troubled province of North Kivu on October 6, was a rare frontal assault on UN forces deployed for protecting civilians in Congo," said an officer.The two injured soldiers from the 2 Bihar regiment were given immediate first aid by the Indian doctor at the MONUSCO camp and later shifted to Indian Hospital in Goma, the main town of North Kivu province around 300-km away.Such an attack by rebels on an Indian post had last taken place at Kirumba (North Kivu) in 2010, in which the rebels were able to intrude into the base and kill three soldiers and wound five others. Overall, 153 Indians have laid down their lives under the UN flag in different missions around the globe since India's first commitment to Korea began in 1950. Among them was Captain G S Salaria, who was posthumously awarded the Param Veer Chakra in Congo in 1961.India, of course, is the second-largest troop contributing country in the world, with 6,891 Army soldiers and 782 police personnel currently deployed in 11 UN missions and two UN offices. The MONUSCO, which has 2,664 Indian military personnel, is the largest and most complex peacekeeping mission. The Indian brigade deployed in North Kivu covers an area of 43,700 square km, with 948 villages and 42 camps with about 1,80,000 internally displaced people.The Mai-Mai became prominent as an armed militia group during the Second Congo War (1998-2003), when it effectively allied with the government to battle invading troops from Rwanda as well as foreign rebels. Some Mai-Mai forces never gave up the weapons they got from the regime. Since the beginning of 2017, the rebel forces have been regularly attacking Congolese Army positions in North Kivu and in the neighbouring South Kivu.They have been at odds with the government for exploiting mineral resources and preying on local residents. President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate last December has fuelled unrest in the country's Eastern provinces.