US deploys troops to South Sudan to protect embassy, personnel -...

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President Barack Obama said on Friday the United States has deployed 45 military personnel to volatile South Sudan to protect the embassy and U.S. government employees there.

"Although equipped for combat, this force was deployed for the purpose of protecting U.S. citizens and property," Obama said in a letter to Congress. "This force will remain in South Sudan until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed."

Also, talks between South Sudan's President Salva Kiir and African mediators trying to broker a peace deal after six days of clashes between rival army factions are progressing well, Ethiopian Foreign Minister Tedros Adhanom said.

"We had a very productive meeting with his excellency President Salva Kiir and we will continue consultations," Adhanom, leader of the Inter Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) delegation, told reporters in Juba on Friday.

This as, two United Nations peacekeepers from India were killed and a third wounded on Thursday when a U.N. base in South Sudan was overrun by armed youths, U.N. spokesman Joe Contreras said on Friday.

Previous reports indicated three Indian peacekeepers died.

Contreras said two civilians were also killed when Lou Nuer youths breached a U.N. compound in Jonglei State. He could not confirm comments by presidential spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny that 54 people from the ethnic Dinka group were killed in the raid.

Meanwhile, South Sudanese soldiers from rival ethnic groups clashed at an army barracks overnight near Bentiu town, the capital of oil producing Unity State, a witness and a U.N. spokesman said.

Heavy fighting between ethnic Nuer and Dinka soldiers in Rubkona, a village about 2 km from Bentiu, began on Thursday evening and lasted till early on Friday, journalist Bonifacio Taban Kuich told Reuters by phone from Bentiu.

U.N. spokesman Joe Contreras said 27 soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir had sought refuge in a U.N. compound near Rubkona, along with 525 civilians. Both Contreras and Kuich said it was not clear who controlled Bentiu.

This comes as President Barack Obama on Thursday urged clashing factions in South Sudan to end violence, restore calm, and work toward reconciliation, saying the conflict there threatens to derail progress the country has made since gaining independence.

REUTERS