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66 killed as nepal battles maoist rebels { August 10 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/10/international/asia/10nepal.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/10/international/asia/10nepal.html
August 10, 2005
At Least 66 Killed as Nepal Battles Maoist Rebels in Western District
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
KATMANDU, Nepal, Aug. 9 (AFP) - The Nepalese Army on Tuesday accused Maoist rebels of executing 40 soldiers in the deadliest incident since King Gyanendra seized power in February, and the American ambassador warned that the country risked sliding into chaos.
The army said its soldiers had been lined up and shot in the head after a battle which raged in the western district of Kalikot throughout Sunday night, bringing the known death toll from the clash to 66, with 76 more soldiers missing.
"The terrorists inhumanely killed 40 security men," an army statement said, adding "by lining them up and shooting them in their heads."
The statement also said that some of the soldiers' bodies had been mutilated.
The rebels, who said 26 of their fighters had been killed, claimed Monday that they had killed 159 soldiers. The Nepal government said late Tuesday via state television that 300 rebels had died in the assault.
The claims could not immediately be verified, but the acknowledged death toll of 40 soldiers is the highest since the king seized power in February.
Since then, analysts say, the military appears to have made little headway against the rebels, who have been fighting since 1996 to overthrow the monarchy and install a communist republic. The conflict has claimed about 12,000 lives.
The American ambassador to Nepal, James F. Moriarty, warned Tuesday that the Himalayan kingdom could slide into chaos.
"The continuing divisions between the royal palace and the political parties aid only the Maoist rebels and their plan to turn Nepal into a brutal and anachronistic state," Mr. Moriarty told the Nepal Council of World Affairs. The soldiers were stationed at the camp to protect workers building a section of highway between the western towns of Surkhet and Jumla.
It was the first Maoist claim of responsibility for a major attack since a bus bombing in June that killed 36 people.
The detailed claims of the rebels were rejected by the military. "We deny the terrorists' claims of killing 159 soldiers in western Nepal," said an army spokesman, Brig. Gen. Dipak Gurung.
The Himalayan Times said 1,400 rebels had been involved in the Kalikot attack. The army could not confirm the figure, but an official said Monday that "a fairly large number of rebels" had taken part.
Also on Tuesday, six Nepalese student leaders, detained for burning pictures of the royal family at a demonstration, were released after more than three weeks in jail, the police said.
The six, released on a Supreme Court order after a petition by the Nepal Bar Association, were greeted by a crowd of 400 supporters outside the Central Jail in Katmandu, witnesses said.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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