Nepal army kills 65 more Maoists

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (R) shakes hands with Indian's Minister of External Affairs Natwar Singh after a joint press conference Thursday at the US State Department in Washington, DC. Singh met earlier with US President George W. Bush at the White House. PHOTO: AFP

Most of the reported deaths were in the western district of Rukum, scene of the heaviest fighting last week since King Gyanendra seized power on February 1.

"Sixty Maoist rebels were killed in a fresh clash with the security forces at Dalphing in Rukum district on Wednesday," the Nepal Royal Army said in a statement, adding the Maoists had suffered "yet another heavy" defeat.

The fighting came less than a week after almost 150 rebels were reported killed and another 300 wounded when they attacked an army base in the village of Khara in the same district, about 400km west of Kathmandu.

It was the heaviest clash since King Gyanendra dismissed the government and imposed emergency rule in the poverty-stricken Himalayan kingdom, saying the move was necessary to tackle the revolt.

Nepal's private schools outside the capital, Kathmandu, obeyed yesterday a Maoist rebel order to shut after guerrilla bombs, planted as a warning, exploded in three empty schools, officials said.

Two of the blasts occurred Thursday while the other took place last week, Nepal's private schools' association said. All of the bombs exploded in rebel-dominated west Nepal, damaging the buildings but causing no injuries.

Schools outside Kathmandu, where the Maoists hold sway, heeded the rebel closure order that marked the latest challenge to the authority of King Gyanendra who seized power February 1.

The Maoists, who control large swathes of Nepal, are fighting to topple the monarchy and install a communist republic in an insurgency which has claimed 11,000 lives since 1996.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal of the Maoist high command confirmed the rebels' heavy losses in the Khara clash without giving the number of casualties, but claimed the Maoists had learned good fighting experience from the incident.

The latest fighting was reported as King Gyanendra, under international pressure over his power-seizure, announced municipal polls to "reactivate the democratic process".

The king said law and order had improved since he imposed emergency rule and suspended civil liberties.

"In view of the improving law-and-order situation, there should not be any delay in activating the democratic process," Gyanendra said in a speech marking the Nepali New Year.

"We have, therefore, commanded the election commission to conduct municipal elections," he said on state radio.

The king, who has pledged to restore democracy within three years, said he had ordered municipal elections to be held in Nepal's 58 municipalities before mid-April next year. The Nepali calendar year runs from mid-April to mid-April.