KATHMANDU, Nov 15: A Nepalese brigadier general and three soldiers were killed when Maoist rebels, fighting to replace the constitutional monarchy with a communist republic, ambushed an army patrol on Saturday, an army spokesman said.

Brig Gen Sagar Bahadur Pandey was the most senior army officer to be killed since the rebels launched their armed revolt for a communist republic, in which more than 8,100 people have died since 1996.

“They died when an army vehicle drove into an ambush laid by the rebels,” the spokesman said. The incident took place near Hetauda, 150kms south of Kathmandu.

At least six other soldiers were wounded and flown in a helicopter to a hospital in Kathmandu, said the spokesman.

The rebels, who abandoned peace talks in August, recently started raiding military and government installations in the Terai region — the main commercial and industrial hub of the Himalayan kingdom.

Violence has escalated since the rebels, who model themselves on the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong, pulled out of peace talks after the government refused their demand for a new constitution to decide the future of monarchy.

At least 900 people, mostly the Maoist guerrillas, have died since then.

Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Sun Heping vowed on Friday his country’s support to the government in its drive to crush the rebels who consider the post-Mao China counter-revolutionary.

In a separate incident, Maoist rebels shot dead three police officials in Nepalgunj, 550kms west of the capital, police said.—Reuters