Frank Nyakairu & Kefa Atibuni
12 September 2002
Kampala — A number of UPDF soldiers were killed Monday when LRA ambushed a Tata lorry on Pakwach road.
The lorry was transporting Nile Breweries crates to Kampala and had been briefly commandeered to pursue the rebels who hit a Nile Coach bus the same day.
Sources said the ambush left 18 soldiers dead and the Nile Breweries truck reg. number UAA 908L completely destroyed.
The incident occurred Purongo.
But the UPDF spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza said "we lost only two soldier and 8 were injured in the ambush including the commanding officer."
He said the officer was a lieutenant.
The rebels are said to have hit the lorry with a rocket-propelled grenade.
The driver of the Nile Breweries truck only identified as Rashid is said to be missing.
This adds to a series of ambushes the LRA rebels have laid for the UPDF in a tactic Maj. Bantariza described as 'sniper'.
Meanwhile, a group of LRA rebels is said to have set up camp in Orum Sub-county in Lira.
The Lira LC-V Charles Arago also said the rebels moved there three days. A census enumerator from the area told The Monitor on phone from Lira town that the rebels could be seen training young boys.
But Maj. Bantariza denied the presence of the rebels' camp at Orum.
"There is no rebel camp in Orum but we engaged a small group there and captured an RGP and a landmine," he said.
Bantariza said the leadership could be exaggerating the situation to win more security but it wasn't true.
Orum is about 66 km on Lira-Kotido road.
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