The Nepali army said today dozens of Maoist rebels may have been killed in a gunbattle that erupted after the guerrillas attacked a security patrol in the west of the Himalayan kingdom.
The army said in a statement it had lost eight soldiers in the attack and gunbattle yesterday near Kapilvastu district, 350 km (220 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu.
"It is estimated that more than two dozen Maoists might have been killed in the battle," it said, adding soldiers recovered the bodies of only two rebels. The army's claim could not be independently verified.
There was no comment from the Maoists who are fighting to topple Nepal's constitutional monarchy. The Maoists - who regularly set up mine-laden road blocks of trees and rocks and attack soldiers who go to clear them - have been fighting since 1996 to set up a communist republic in one of the world's 10 poorest nations. The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people.