By Alfred Taban
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - More than 130 people were killed in fighting between government forces and rebels for control of the eastern border town of Kassala on Wednesday, a Sudanese official said on state television.
Commissioner of Kassala province Mohamed Yousif told the television late on Thursday that 52 civilians and soldiers had been killed in the Wednesday fighting.
The television said 80 southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) were also killed. It showed bodies of rebels, some of them with limbs severed or parts of their heads blown off.
Yousif said 433 civilians and soldiers were wounded in the battle for the town close to the Eritrean border, which the rebels claimed to have captured on Wednesday. He said Kassala was now completely in the hands of the armed forces.
He praised the armed forces and the Mujahideen (Islamic warriors) for their ''bravery'' in crushing the ''desperate'' attack on Kassala, about 250 miles east of Khartoum.
''There is complete calm, stability and security in Kassala and the surrounding areas,'' Yousif said.
The television showed many houses and public office buildings that had been completely or partly destroyed.
First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha flew to Kassala on Thursday and was shown on television touring the town.
In the Eritrean capital Asmara, a spokesman for the rebel National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which links northern Muslim opposition groups with the SPLA, confirmed on Thursday that the government was in control of Kassala.
''We completed our withdrawal from Kassala this morning at around 5 a.m. Our plan was to destroy the enemy and we did so,'' Yasir Arman said.
He said the NDA had killed more than 400 government soldiers, ''demolished'' all government military garrisons and command posts around Kassala, shot down two helicopter gunships and captured 13 tanks and more than 2,000 rifles.
Arman, who would not disclose rebel casualties, said NDA forces had been deployed north of Kassala.
The SPLA has fought for 17 years for autonomy for the mainly Christian and animist south. An estimated two million people -- most of them civilians -- have died in the conflict and the famines it has fuelled.
Sporadic peace talks between the Islamist-led government and SPLA have failed to settle the conflict, complicated by disputes over territory, religion and resources, including oil.