S.Sudan rebels claim rare attack in far south

Juba (AFP) - South Sudanese rebels claimed responsibility Friday for a rare attack in the far south of the country, killing two soldiers and a top local government official.

Two soldiers were shot dead in an ambush in the early hours of Friday morning near the town of Mundri in Western Equatoria, some 180 kilometres (110 miles) west of the capital Juba.

When government officers came to visit the scene of the attack, the top local district official was also killed, the state information minister said.

Fighting broke out in the capital Juba in December 2013 when South Sudan's President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar of attempting a coup, setting off a cycle of retaliatory killings across the country.

But since then, the worst of the fighting in the 17-month war has been concentrated in three states -- Unity and Upper Nile in the north, and Jonglei in the east, often pitting rival Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups against each other.

The southern Equatoria regions, which include the capital Juba, have largely stayed out of the conflict, and further violence there could be a worrying sign the war may be spreading.

"It is a politically motivated shooting... the situation is still tense," Western Equatoria state Information Minister Charles Barnaba Kisanga told AFP.

Rebel spokesman James Gatdet Dak praised the killings.

"We congratulate our freedom fighters for the victory," he said in a statement.