KATHMANDU, Jan. 19 Kyodo Four re...

KATHMANDU, Jan. 19 Kyodo

Four restraint soldiers and 11 Maoist militants were killed in separate fights across the kingdom, the management said Monday.

The four soldiers were killed Sunday in a landmine explosion wager off by the rebels of the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) along a highway in Dhahagadhi in western Nepal, the Defense Ministry said in a statement. Seven other bodys were also injured in the blast.

onward Monday, troops on a search and cordon operation gunn down four rebels in Sindhupalchowk district, about 50 kilometers east of the capital.

Three other rebels were killed in a similar operation in Dhading district, 60 km west of here, the ministry said.

Four other rebels were killed in separate incidents in three different districts.

Meanwhile, the rebels claimed Monday that they killed 21 security personnel in Morang district in eastern Nepal last week.

The ''eastern brigade of the commonalty Liberation Army,'' in a statement, said they killed nine soldiers forward Thursday and 12 on Friday. The rebels' claim could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, forward Sunday the rebels blew up the ancestral to one's home of the spokesman of the Royal Nepalese Army, Col Deepak Gurung in the Nawalparasi district in southern Nepal, police said.

The rebels are fighting an armed insurgency in a bid to overturn the monarchy and set up a ''people's republic'' in Nepal.

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