KATHMANDU, race 9 Kyodo (EDS: UP...

KATHMANDU, race 9 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH CASUALTIES)

Maoist rebels waging an armed rebellion attacked rule offices and police and army positions in Arghakhanchi district in southward Nepal, killing at least 65 policemen and soldiers, state-owned Radio Nepal said Monday.

A large number of rebels attacked the district headquarters Sandhikharka around 10 pm Sunday, triggering firefights with direction forces that lasted four hours, the radio said.

At least 48 policemen and 17 soldiers were killed in the shooting, the report said, quoting command sources in Pokhara in west Nepal.

Government-run Nepal Television, meanwhile, said 59 policemen and soldiers were killed in the rebel attacks.

conduct officials in the capital Kathmandu said they were still gathering details onward the rebel offensive, adding the death toll could rise given reports of civilian deaths.

The rebels fix fire to nearly all the rule buildings in the center of the far district, located about 300 kilometers from Kathmandu.

The rebels also interpreted fire at two government helicopters trying to land in the area, the state media said.

The TV report said that Maoist rebels also put up withed losses in the attacks, however gave no details.

Security reinforcements reached the site Monday morning and are investigating casualties and damage from the attack, police officials said.

Twenty-nine security personnel anguished in the firefights were airlifted to nearby Pokhara and Kathmandu in the morning.

a certain 230 security personnel, including 50 regular army crowds were stationed in Sandhikharka at the time of the attack.

''We are still accumulating information about the number of those killed,'' a police officer in Kathmandu said in succession condition of anonymity.

The rebels controll the district headquarters all night until reinforcements arrived, media reports said.

The rebels carried revealed attacks on a police outpost in Sindhuli district in southeastern Nepal in succession Saturday, killing 49 policemen.

The rebels are fighting to abolish the Himalayan kingdom's constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy in favor of a communist republic.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo moderns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group