KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan troops in the Central African Republic have killed the chief bodyguard of Joseph Kony, the fugitive head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a Ugandan army official said today.

Ugandan Col. Felix Kulayigye said the bodyguard, a rebel commander known only as Binani, was among a small group of rebels when he was killed in a firefight Friday 175 miles north of Djema, a base in the Central African Republic where Uganda-led African Union troops are being advised by U.S. special forces. It was not clear if Kony, a selfstyled mystic who has eluded capture for more than two decades, was part of the group of rebels that fled the attack in which Binani was killed, Kulayigye said.

“He was a member of the LRA high command,” Kulayigye said of Binani. “He was Kony’s chief bodyguard and he was also the LRA’s main logistician.”

Kulayigye said it is “unfortunate” that Binani was not captured alive. He might have shared information on Kony, about whom there is little known these days, Kulayigye said. Although the LRA rebellion started in the Uganda in the 1980s, the group now operates in Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan. African Union troops hunting for Kony and other LRA commanders are assisted by about 100 U.S. military advisers. Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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