By Opheera McDoom

EL-FASHER, Sudan, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Darfur rebels threatened on Sunday to not let a joint U.N.-African Union force enter areas of West Darfur attacked by the Sudanese government in one of their biggest offensives of recent months.

Rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) leader Khalil Ibrahim warned the new mission against moving into the burned towns, delaying an investigation by the peacekeepers.

"We are warning the hybrid troops forces that they should not enter these areas. We are coming back," Ibrahim said on Sunday.

The UNAMID force, which took charge of peacekeeping in Sudan's west on Dec. 31, has already come under fire by government troops in the volatile area north of West Darfur state capital el-Geneina, an area which has seen the fiercest battles in recent months.

"We will not accept them coming. We will attack anybody who comes into our areas," he added.

A tribal leader from the area, Ibrahim el-Nur, told Reuters on Sunday he had names of some 44 killed in Sirba town alone. He was still waiting for inital figures from Abu Surouj. Witnesses say they saw nine people killed in Suleia. All three towns are in West Darfur near the border with Chad.

Residents say the total death toll could be as high as 200 but they could not yet reach all the bodies. About 200,000 were forced to flee their homes as a result of the attacks.

Sudan has banned international aid workers from the area in the past few months so reports are difficult to verify.

International experts estimate 200,000 have died and 2.5 million killed in five years of conflict in Darfur. Washington calls the violence genocide, a term Khartoum rejects. They blame the West for exaggerating the conflict.

JEM commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr said he had told UNAMID not to send troops to the area.

"This is an area of operations," Ashr told Reuters from Darfur. "This is a critical stage and we don't want hybrid troops in there."

Ashr said the population from the entire area had been forced from their homes.

"They have no water. Their humanitarian situation is so bad and we are appealing to the international community to help them," he said.

The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said about 12,000 Darfuri refugees had crossed into eastern Chad after the attacks.

"It's mainly men so far but they told us that more refugees are on their way, mostly women and children," UNHCR spokeswoman Helene Caux said. She said they planned to move them to refugee camps further inside Chad already housing some 240,000 Darfuri. (Additional reporting by Andrew Heavens; editing by Matthew Jones)

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