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| Sunday, 24 July 2005 |
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Nine killed as Nepal rebels fire at army patrol KATHMANDU, Saturday (Reuters) Nine people were killed in a brief gunbattle in western Nepal after Maoist rebels opened fire from behind bushes at a security patrol, an army officer said on Saturday. Seven soldiers and at least two rebels were killed on Friday in the Maoist stronghold of Dang district, 400 km (250 miles) west of Kathmandu, in what was the biggest attack on security forces in a month. "The Maoists fired at our men from behind bushes in a style which is typical of them," the officer said. The Maoists want to install a one-party communist republic, but the insurgency has wrecked Nepal's desperately poor economy, which is heavily dependent on foreign aid and tourism. King Gyanendra fired the government and seized control in February, saying the move was needed to quell the anti-monarchy insurgency in which 12,500 people have died since 1996. "We have recovered two rebel bodies after a brief firefight and the bloodstains on the ground show that the guerrillas might have carried away their other fallen comrades," the army officer said. Early this month, top U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi called for an early end to the conflict with the Maoists and the restoration of democracy.. |
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