Maoist rebels claimed responsibility for killing 42...

Maoist rebels claimed responsibility for killing 42 Nepalese policemen and wounding 75 others in the deadliest attacks in their five-year war against the constitutional monarchy. Officials said about 300 Maoists armed with bombs and AK-47 assault rifles attacked a hill-top police post in Rukum district, 240 miles west of Kathmandu, shortly after midnight on April 2, killing 32 policemen and wounding 40 others in a five-hour gun battle. Armed with antiquated rifles, the police were no match for the insurgents. Bodies of executed policemen were still being discovered in the surrounding hillsides. In another rebel attack at about the same time 10 policemen were killed and 35 others wounded at a village in Dolkha district, 75 miles east of Kathmandu. Eleven rebels were killed and a dozen others wounded in the attacks.