37 Killed as Nepal Rebels Clash with Police
At least 37 people were killed when about 1,000 Maoist rebels tried to storm a police training center in western Nepal two days after ending a truce with the government, police said Monday. The clash began late Sunday when the rebels fighting to topple the constitutional monarchy began firing from higher ground at the roadside camp in Bhaluwang, 250 miles west of Kathmandu. “The rebels had snapped telephone cables, set up roadblocks by felling trees or blowing up highway bridges to prevent reinforcements from coming,” a witness, Krishna Adhikary, told Reuters. The clash came after 37 Maoists and three policemen were killed in a fierce gunbattle also in the west of the Himalayan kingdom late Friday, ending a nine-day truce called by the rebels for Nepal’s largest Hindu festival, Dasain. Full Story