M23 rebels last month massacred at least 131 civilians in eastern DR Congo and committed more than two dozen rapes, according to a preliminary probe into the killings, the UN mission in the country said.
The government has said some 300 people, almost all civilians, died in the massacre in North Kivu province on November 29-30.
The group has denied any responsibility, blaming "stray bullets" for the deaths of just eight civilians.
In a statement issued overnight Wednesday, the UN's MONUSCO peacekeeping mission said investigators found 131 people had died, killed "as part of reprisals against the civilian population."
The evidence comes from witnesses and other sources as investigators were unable to reach the villages where the massacre took place, which means the toll "could change," MONUSCO warned.
The victims -- 102 men, 17 women and 12 children -- were "arbitrarily executed" by bullets or knives, it said.
"Eight people were wounded by bullets and 60 others kidnapped. At least 22 women and five girls were raped," it said.
"This violence was carried out as part of a campaign of murders, rapes, kidnappings and looting against two villages in Rutshuru territory as reprisals for the clashes between the M23" and other armed groups, the statement said.
The probe, carried out by the UN Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) and MONUSCO, centred on events in the neighbouring villages of Kishishe and Bambo.
Investigators could not go to the villages themselves because of security concerns, but interviewed 52 victims, witnesses and other sources in the town of Rwindi 20 kilometres away, MONUSCO said.
