(Adds rebels capturing 20 government soldiers) By Tiemoko Diallo BAMAKO, March 21 (Reuters) - Three Malian soldiers were killed and around 20 were captured by Tuareg rebels who attacked a military supply convoy near the northeastern border with Algeria, Malian military authorities said on Friday. First reports of the ambush, which occurred early on Thursday 18 km (11 miles) from the border garrison town of Tin-Zaouatene, had said four soldiers were wounded. The attack triggered a series of gunbattles between troops and rebels which went on for most of Thursday, a defence ministry official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. He said the army suffered three dead and several wounded in the attack. There were no details of rebel casualties. Another military officer later told Reuters that some 20 government soldiers were captured by the rebels, who pulled back under cover of nightfall towards the Algerian border. "We're in control of the situation now," the ministry spokesman said, but gave no more details. The fighting took place in the northern sector of Mali's Kidal region where al Qaeda kidnappers are reported to be holding two Austrian tourists seized last month in Tunisia. There was no suggestion of any link between Thursday's attack and the kidnapping of the Austrians. Mali's government is trying to help Austrian diplomats negotiate the release of Andrea Kloiber, 43, and Wolfgang Ebner, 51, who went missing while on holiday in Tunisia last month. Algerian-based al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb says it seized the two, and in postings on Islamist Web sites has demanded a ransom and the liberation of 10 militants held in Algeria and Tunisia. It had set a deadline of midnight last Sunday for its demands to be met, but has extended this by a week. Last September, Malian Tuareg fighters briefly besieged Tin-Zaouatene and carried out raids and ambushes. Government officials say rebel leaders are fighting the army presence in the remote region to try to maintain control of traditional Saharan smuggling routes between Algeria and Mali. The nomadic light-skinned Tuaregs in northern Mali and neighbouring Niger have long complained of being marginalised by black-dominated governments ruling far away in the south. They staged an uprising in the former French colonies in the 1990s. The Niger and Malian governments describe them as bandits involved in arms- and drugs-trafficking. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/) (Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Ibon Villelabeitia)
