Kinshasa (AFP) - Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday urged the International Criminal Court to probe recent massacres of scores of villagers in the northeast Beni region of Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Unidentified rebel fighters have killed at least 184 civilians and wounded many others in attacks on villages in Beni territory ... since October 2014," HRW reported from Goma, the chief town of the strife-torn North Kivu province.

"Such killings amount to war crimes," the New York-based watchdog said in a statement. Local sources in the Beni region give a death toll of more than 260 since early October.

"The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) should collect information and examine the abuses with a view to determining whether an ICC investigation into alleged crimes in the Beni area is warranted," HRW said.

The court in The Hague has already convicted two Congolese militia leaders of war crimes and crimes against humanity, one for exploiting child soldiers while the other was found guilty of planning an ambush on a village in which hundreds died.

The Congolese army (FARDC), the large UN mission deployed in the troubled country (MONUSCO) and several diplomats blame the wave of attacks in the Beni region on a mainly Muslim rebel movement from neighbouring Uganda, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

But nobody has claimed responsibility for the slaughter since the beginning of October of scores of men, women and children, mainly hacked and stabbed to death.

"Large-scale rebel attacks occurring nearly weekly have terrorised residents of Beni and left them uncertain where to seek safety," HRW's senior Congo researcher Ida Sawyer said, calling on the FARDC and the UN to coordinate their efforts better.

- Joint operation under way -

MONUSCO today includes a special intervention brigade of some 3,000 men with a mandate from the UN Security Council to take the offensive against the armed movements rife in eastern DRC.

Spokesmen for the Congolese army and MONUSCO both announced Tuesday that a joint military operation against the ADF in the north of North Kivu province had been under way since Saturday.

"Operations continue and have just been extended ... to dismantle the remains of the ADF who are still in the zone," Congolese Colonel Celestin Ngeleka told AFP, adding that "we have not met resistance and troops are advancing in the forest."

Lieutenant-Colonel Felix-Prosper Basse, military spokesman for the UN mission, said his force was providing logistical and tactical support, with medical help.

Driven out of Uganda by the army of President Yoweri Museveni, the ADF has maintained bases in the eastern DRC since 1995 and is currently estimated to number about 400 fighters.

The Congolese army tried to wipe out the ADF this year, but after initial successes in an offensive, the FARDC troops fell back and the Ugandan rebels reasserted control.

Residents of the Beni region have protested at the perceived inaction and incompetence of the army and the UN soldiers.

With around 20,000 men, including the special brigade, MONUSCO has a mandate to protect civilians and to neutralise armed groups that have emerged in the east over more than 20 years.

"MONUSCO should increase patrols to the affected areas, including foot and night patrols, and set up mobile operating bases closer to the remote villages where many of the recent attacks have taken place," HRW recommended.

The watchdog organisation also said that a hotline should be set up to enable civilians to reach the peacekeeping troops, while liaison assistants who speak the local language and understand the culture should be made part of UN intervention brigade units.

HRW urged Congolese authorities to allow human rights observers into areas where attacks have taken place.

Until recently, the region around the trading town of Beni, 250 kilometres (155 miles) north of Goma, the capital of North Kivu, was largely spared the conflicts ravaging the province.