KATHMANDU, Aug 9: Nepal’s army on Tuesday accused Maoist rebels of executing 40 soldiers in the deadliest incident since the king seized power in February, as the US ambassador warned the country risked sliding into chaos.

The army said its soldiers had been lined up and shot in the head after a battle which raged in the northwestern town of Kalikot throughout Sunday night, bringing the clash’s known death toll to 66 with another 76 soldiers missing.

“The terrorists inhumanely killed 40 security men ... by lining them up and shooting them in their heads,” an army statement said. It added that some of the soldiers’ bodies had been mutilated.

“The security forces are continuing the search for the rebels in the areas from where they are most likely to escape,” the statement said.

The rebels, who said 26 of their fighters were killed, on Monday claimed they killed 159 soldiers. The Nepal government via state television late on Tuesday said 300 rebels had died in the assault.

The claims could not immediately be independently verified but the acknowledged death toll of 40 soldiers is the highest since King Gyanendra seized power in February, saying the move was necessary to tackle the Maoist revolt.

Analysts say the military appears to have made little headway since then against the rebels, who have been fighting since 1996 to overthrow the monarchy and install a communist republic. The conflict has claimed some 12,000 lives.

US ambassador to Nepal James F. Moriarty, meanwhile, warned on Tuesday that the Himalayan kingdom could slide into chaos unless Gyanendra is reconciled with political parties.

“Unless the principles of freedom, civil rights, and democracy once again take root through a process of true reconciliation among the legitimate political forces, I fear Nepal will inexorably slide towards confrontation, confusion and chaos,” Moriarty said.

“The continuing divisions between the royal palace and the political parties aid only the Maoist rebels and their plan to turn Nepal into a brutal and anachronistic state,” he told the Nepal Council of World Affairs.

An army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that 227 soldiers had been stationed at the camp near Kalikot attacked by the rebels on Sunday night. Apart from the 40 confirmed killed, 111 had been traced and 76 were still unaccounted for.

The Maoists’ western division commander, Prabhakar, said on Monday the clash lasted 11 hours and 159 soldiers were killed.

Another 50 troops had been taken prisoner, he said in a statement, and 26 Maoists were killed.

The soldiers were stationed at the camp to protect workers building a section of highway between the western towns of Surkhet and Jumla.

It was the first Maoist claim of responsibility for a major attack since a bus bombing in June killed 36 people. But their detailed claims were rejected by the military.

“We deny the terrorists’ claims of killing 159 soldiers in western Nepal,” said army spokesman Brigadier General Dipak Gurung.

The Himalayan Times said 1,400 rebels had been involved in the Kalikot attack. The army could not confirm the figure but an official on Monday said ‘a fairly large number of rebels’ had taken part.

The paper said army reinforcements had been dropped at the scene of the battle by helicopter, causing rebels to retreat into the jungle.—AFP