Gunmen kill two in car in Burundi near DR Congo border, residents say

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Two people were killed and another wounded when their car was ambushed by gunmen in the west of Burundi near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, residents said on Sunday.

The assault took place on Saturday night on the road from Bubanza province to Burundi's commercial capital Bujumbura, they said.

Three residents told Reuters they heard gunshots and grenade explosions from the area of the attack.

"A car from Gihanga to Bujumbura was burnt down, two people in the vehicle, a woman and a man, were killed...one man escaped but was injured by bullets," one woman who lives close to the scene told Reuters.

The residents said they suspected the attack, about 5 km from the border, was caried out by Red-Tabara, a rebel group that has been battling Burundi's government for years from bases in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

They said attackers returned back to the nearby Rukoko forest, from where they could cross back to their bases.

The group has previously been accused by the Burundi government of having conducted several ambushes and attacks against civilian and military targets since 2015. Police were not available for comment on Sunday.

(This story has been refiled to remove an extraneous word in the headline)

(Editing by Elias Biryabarema and Angus MacSwan)