Kampala - The Ugandan army said Tuesday it is close to defeating the rebels in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo and stopped them from massacring civilians there since the start of its offensive in December.

UN and humanitarian agencies say that Uganda's Lords Resistance Army (LRA) guerrillas massacred up to 1,000 people in the north- eastern region of the DR Congo several weeks after the joint operation against them by Ugandan, Congolese and Sudanese forces began mid-December 2008.

The rebels who had already killed thousands and displaced close to two million people in their two decades rebellion in northern Uganda, had fled to Congo late 2004 after abandoning their former southern Sudan bases.

"The operations against the LRA are going on well and for that reason, they no longer abduct or kill any civilians because our forces are already on the ground," army spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"They are scattered and we are killing and capturing their commanders," he added.

Kulayigye said that over the weekend, a senior LRA commander, lieutenant colonel Okello Yape, was killed in battle in a village on the Congo-Sudan border.

The incident comes a few days after another senior rebel officer, the fourth in the hierarchy of the guerrilla command, was captured by the joint forces in battle.

"It is an achievement if you kill a lieutenant colonel who is a senior commander among the rebels," Kulayigye spoke by telephone. (dpa)