Seventeen Government soldiers have been killed and 82 captured in clashes at Katonga Bridge, 60 miles southwest of Kampala, rebels said today.

A spokesman for the National Resistance Army said there had been no casualties on the rebel side in fighting at the bridge over the last few days.

The guerrillas, who are fighting Uganda’s new military Government, will hold onto Katonga Bridge, the rebels’ eastern front, at all cost, the spokesman said by telephone from Masaka, the country’s third largest town.

The bridge is on the road that links Kampala to Masaka, which has been cut off by the rebels for three weeks.