Kampala  - The Ugandan army has captured a top official from the rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the Central African Republic, a military spokesman said Wednesday.

Uganda recently extended its operations against the LRA - which fought a decades-long rebellion in northern Uganda - to the CAR.

Captured LRA officer Mickman Opuk, believed to be a brigadier, is a "highly placed" LRA commander and a close confidant of elusive rebel leader Joseph Kony, military spokesman lieutenant colonel Felix Kulayigye told the German Press Agency dpa.

Ugandan troops also rescued 98 people, mainly women, children and the elderly, who had been kidnapped by the LRA, Kulayigye said.

The LRA fought a decades-long civil war in northern Uganda, where it left thousands dead and mutilated and thousands of children abducted.

The rebels fled to north-east DR Congo in 2004, then in 2006 agreed to end the war through peace talks.

However, the LRA refused to sign a final peace deal and demanded an assurance that its leaders would not be taken to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to face indictments on war crimes charges.

In December 2008, a joint force of Ugandan, Congolese, Sudanese and UN troops began fighting the LRA in DR Congo.

The LRA carried out reprisal attacks against civilians in DR Congo, Sudan and the CAR, killing over 1,000 people and forcing thousands of others to flee.(dpa)