(Refiles to fix typo in headline)

By Joe Bavier

MINOVA, Congo, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Hundreds of civilians and scores of wounded soldiers fled fighting in eastern Congo on Tuesday after rebels loyal to renegade Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda launched pre-dawn raids on army positions.

The attacks near the village of Rumangabo, around 40 km (25 miles) north of Goma, capital of the North Kivu province, came a day after Nkunda's men halted a week-old government advance against them.

On Monday, Nkunda loyalists wrested back control of the hilltop villages of Karuba and Bihambwe as well as the heights above the town of Mushake, 35 km west of Goma, which government forces had taken last week.

Hundreds of people fled their homes near the front line overnight, taking all they could carry towards the village of Minova, nestled on the shores of Lake Kivu on the border with Rwanda, where Nkunda enjoys support.

"I was in my field last night when I saw government soldiers running. I asked myself why they were running, they've taken Mushake. So I went into Mushake and ran into Nkunda's rebels," said Bati Butshana, seeking medical help at a clinic in Minova.

"They wanted to kill me. They stabbed me through the hand with a bayonet and I ran. I ran all night," he said.

Hundreds of displaced civilians carrying sleeping mats and cooking pots, some with small herds of goats, others carrying babies on their backs, arrived in Minova. Some slept in the open air overnight in the village's market square.

"Most walked about 45 km (28 miles) over the hills from Karuba," said Edouard Dunia, who runs a local aid agency which was registering some of the displaced.

He said that among the 50 families he had registered so far, five had reported cases of sexual violence, including a mother who was raped along with her 7-year-old daughter.

WOUNDED SOLDIERS

Butshana said he had seen many bodies as he fled the fighting, some of them government soldiers, others Nkunda loyalists. Minova's general hospital said it alone had received 26 wounded government fighters.

President Joseph Kabila threw more than 20,000 soldiers into a major campaign on Dec. 3 to snuff out Nkunda's three-year-old rebellion, which draws on some 4,000 disciplined and battle-hardened Tutsi fighters.

The army initially made rapid gains in a two-pronged offensive before meeting dogged resistance in the rugged hills on the threshold of Nkunda's fiefdom.

Congo's U.N. peacekeeping mission (MONUC) said the army had withdrawn from advanced positions on the road north towards the towns of Kirolirwe and Kichanga, two of Nkunda's strongholds.

Kabila promised in a state of the nation address last week to end Nkunda's uprising and pacify the east after a tumultuous decade following the toppling of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

Defence Minister Chikez Diemu reassured Congolese in an address on state television late on Monday that despite some setbacks, the campaign remained on track.

"There was a spill-over at Mushake, but there is no impact on the offensive. There's no reason to panic," he said.

Nkunda first led two brigades of soldiers into the bush in 2004, saying he was protecting eastern Congo's Tutsi minority.

Renewed fighting erupted in August when he abandoned a January peace deal. More than 400,000 people have fled fighting between Nkunda's insurgents, government soldiers, Rwandan Hutu rebels and local Mai Mai militia in the past year. (Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Daniel Flynn)

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