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At least 70 killed in worst violence in Nepal for months
INSURGENCY:
Police forces killed 35 Maoist rebels in an attack on their base, and 11 police officers died when rebels ambushed their vehicle
AP
, KATMANDU
Tuesday, Dec 16, 2003, Page 5
In some of the worst fighting in months in Nepal, clashes between Maoist rebels and security forces left at least 70 people dead over the weekend, officials and media reports said.
The violence underscored the severity of the seven-year insurgency.
In the worst fighting, security forces attacked a rebel hideout Sunday in Dailekh district, 360km west of Katmandu, killing at least 35 insurgents, state-run Radio Nepal said.
Fighting when the rebels attacked an army patrol near Piyakolek, in the same district, the radio report said. Security forces retaliated and chased the guerrillas to their hideout. There were no reports of army casualties.
In a separate attack Sunday, rebels ambushed a police vehicle in eastern Nepal, killing at least 11 policemen and injuring four others, a senior police official said.
The vehicle was blown up near Jaleshwor, 400km east of Katmandu, the capital, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The four policemen injured in the attack were initially taken to a hospital near Jaleshwor, he said. However, three of them were later transferred to a Katmandu hospital by helicopter as their conditions worsened.
The vehicle was reduced to a heap of twisted metal and there was a 3m-deep crater at the site of the explosion, a local radio station reported.
Elsewhere, 13 rebels were killed in two separate gunbattles with soldiers on Sunday, the radio said quoting unnamed officials.
On Saturday, troops killed 11 suspected insurgents, including a rebel commander, in several clashes across Nepal, the Himalayan Times newspaper quoted unidentified defense officials as saying.
Attempts contact the military were not immediately successful. The rebels have few relations with the media and do not normally comment on clashes.
Maoist have been attacking security forces, detonating bombs, abducting people and robbing banks since they broke a seven-month-old ceasefire and pulled out of peace talks in August.
The rebels, who say they are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (¤ò¿AªF), have been fighting since 1996 to establish a communist-style republic in the Himalayan kingdom.
The government has officially labeled the insurgents as terrorists.
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