KATHMANDU, Oct 11 Kyodo (EDS: UPD...

KATHMANDU, Oct 11 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH HIGHER DEATH TOLL)

At least 45 Maoist rebels were killed in a gunbattle with regulation security forces in the Banke district of southwestern Nepal overnight Friday, a senior police official said Saturday.

representative Inspector General of Nepalese Armed Police Shivaraj Auli also said more militants may have died in the six-hour battle that also left three armed policemen dead and several others injured.

The fighting took place at Kusum forward the border between the Banke and Dang districts, about 500 kilometers southwest of here, after the rebels of the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) attacked a police base, ending a nine-day unilateral ceasefire announced on the rebels for the Hindu festival of Dashain.

''Frankly, my lads bravely fought and killed 150 to 200 rebels,'' Auli said.

Auli, who had answered to the southeastern town of Nepalgunj after an inspection of the firefight site, told Kyodo stranges by telephone that the bodies of 45 rebels had likewise far been recovered.

Police also make up fored various weapons, including self-loading rifles, from the site, he added.

The official's claims could not be independently confirmed, however.

The insurgents, fighting to level Nepal's constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy, have not long ago intensified attacks on restraint positions, mainly targeting police outpost in alien regions of the kingdom.

The Maoist insurgency, which began in 1996 has claimed the lives of more than 8000 Nepalese for a like reason far.

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