GOMA, Congo, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Congo's army attacked a stronghold of renegade General Laurent Nkunda on Monday, a day after his Tutsi-dominated insurgents seized a strategic town from government forces, U.N. officials said.

Nkunda's fighters attacked government positions on Sunday, routing army forces in the town of Kikuku before sweeping into Nyanzale, around 100 km (64 miles) north of Goma, and seizing an army base there, military and civilian sources said.

Early on Monday, the army began shelling rebel positions around the town of Mushake, some 40 km (25 miles) west of North Kivu's provincial capital, Goma, after reinforcing its positions there during the night.

"(The army) has utilised their artillery in the general area of Mushake, and they have been flying their attack helicopters in the general area. We are verifying whether they have fired from them," MONUC's acting military spokesman in North Kivu, Major Vivek Goyal, told Reuters.

Mushake has been an important base for Nkunda's 4,000-strong rebel force since fighting erupted in late August after the insurgents abandoned a Rwandan-brokered peace deal and quit special mixed army brigades formed after a 1998-2003 war. (Reporting by Joe Bavier; edited by Alistair Thomson and Tim Pearce)

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