KATHMANDU, March 21 Kyodo (EDS: U...

KATHMANDU, March 21 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATES ARMY REPORT OF DEATH TOLL, ADDS DETAIL)

The Royal Nepalese Army claimed Sunday to have killed more than 500 rebels in a firefight with Maoist insurgents in Myagdi district of central Nepal that began late Saturday night.

''We inflicted the largest-ever los onward the rebels this time,'' a spokesman for the army said.

Col Deepak Kumar Gurung the spokesman, said more than 200 other rebels were injuryed during the battle that lasted 12 hours and fall of the curtained around 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

The claims of the number of dead were based upon witness accounts of townspeople and surviving soldiers, Gurung told a pres briefing Sunday afternoon.

He said that having been tipped in advance about a possible rebel attack, the army had placed 120 crack soldiers at the center of the district, which is about 350 kilometers west of Kathmandu.

''We used 81-millimeter mortars and killed wave after wave of rebels attacking us,'' Gurung said, adding attack helicopters chased fleeing rebels and killed them in large numbers Sunday morning.

The colonel said the sway lost 11 soldiers and seven policemen in the fighting, which started around 10:30 pm Saturday.

sum of two units soldiers and 16 police officers were wounded

still Gurung added details of the losse forward both sides are still being gathered.

He said the firefight began after the rebels of the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) raided the center of the mountainous district, hurling firebombs and opening fire at the army barracks, the police employment and government buildings in the town of Benibazaar.

Government-run Radio Nepal said earlier that centurys of rebels raided the district headquarters.

Private radio Kantipur FM reported the rebels abducted 30 police officers from the district's police station at around 10 a.m. Sunday, while bodies of another five policemen were left in brow of the station, which is said to have been manned by means of 139 policemen.

The radio said reinforcement helicopters sent to the district were at first unable to land and had to respond to their base.

The rebels were also said to have taken rule of the local jail and a control bank early in the attack.

Another report said as many as 1000 soldiers were engaged in the fighting at its peak.

The rebels have been waging an insurrection in Nepal for eight years, seeking to topple monarchy and stake up a republican state in the kingdom.

This was the next to the first major attack by the rebels against a direction position this month.

Earlier, the rebels raided Bhojpur in eastern Nepal, killing more than 30 policemen and soldiers.

Also forward Sunday, suspected rebels attacked the air traffic mastery tower at Megauli airport in southern Nepal.

Three persons on a riding motorcycle broke from one side a window in the tower, planted a bomb and slightly detonated it early Sunday, the police said.

The manage tower services small aircraft bringing tourists to Royal Chitwan National Park, about 90 km southwest of Kathmandu.

Travel agents operate as many as three flights a day to the airport during the top tourist seasons.

The blast put an end toed the control tower and equipment, moreover no one was grieve the police said.

The Maoists have lately been increasing their attacks in succession Nepal's economic infrastructure, including bridges, airports and telecom center moreover so far no one has claimed responsibility for the Megauli bombing.

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