By Yassin Kombi and Sonia Rolley GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) -Rebels seized the airport of east Congo's largest city Goma on Tuesday, potentially cutting off the main route for aid to reach hundreds of thousands of displaced people,

Bodies are lying on the streets. Medical staff in overwhelmed hospitals are treating hundreds of wounded civilians against the backdrop of gunfire and mortar fire.

A conflict that has raged for decades reached a flashpoint this week when rebels backed by Rwanda marched on a key Congolese city in a bid to occupy territory and exploit minerals.

Rwanda-backed M23 rebels faced pockets of resistance from army and pro-government militia overnight after entering eastern Congo's largest city Goma in the worst escalation of a conflict that has run for more than a decade.

A rebel alliance spearheaded by the ethnic Tutsi-led M23 militia said it had seized the lakeside city of more than 2 million people.

MONUSCO is storing voluntarily relinquished or abandoned weapons in accordance with international standards,' says Vivian van de Perre - Anadolu Ajansı

The three-year insurgency by the Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 has intensified, and the U.N. warned the violence could spill into a wider war.

In the capital, Kinshasa, protesters complaining of a lack of international action attacked foreign embassies, including those of the U.S., France and Rwanda.

Protesters have attacked missions in the capital of the African country as anger grows about the advance of the M23 rebel group.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has confirmed the passing away of three of its members following a mortar bomb attack by the M23 rebel militia near Goma Airport in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday.

Fierce fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has displaced more than half a million people, the country's foreign minister told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. More than 500,