WWF vehicle ambushed in Congo gorilla reserve

Unidentified gunmen ambushed a vehicle belonging to an international conservation group in an eastern Congo gorilla reserve, killing two people and wounding three others, officials and a U.N.-funded radio station said Wednesday.

The vehicle belonged to the World Wildlife Fund, said Thierry Bodson, the local head of the organization in Congo. The gunmen carried out their attack late Monday in Kasoso in Virunga National Park, a lush game park in Central Africa that is home to some of the world's last remaining mountain gorillas.

U.N.-funded Radio Okapi reported that the vehicle was carrying 11 people. The wife of a park guard and her daughter were killed. The three injured were a park guard, the wife of another guard and a trainer for the World Wildlife Fund, Radio Okapi said.

The attackers fled with five GPS tracking devices, the radio said.

The identity of the assailants was unknown. Bodson said only that the car "had been spotted by bandits and they opened fire."

Virunga National Park is in a lawless swath of eastern Congo, straddling a volcanic mountain range that borders Rwanda and Uganda. About 700 endangered mountain gorillas live in the region; a couple of hundred of them live in Congo.

Local militia groups - including Congolese Mayi Mayi and Rwandan rebels - have been active in the region for more than a decade, feeding off a vulnerable civilian population.

More than 120 rangers have been killed in Virunga park over the last decade.