January 15, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 14, 1426

KATHMANDU, Jan 14: Fourteen policemen were killed in separate bomb attacks by suspected Maoist rebels on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital, police said on Saturday.

Eleven people were killed in a bomb blast on a checkpoint south of Kathmandu while another three were killed in the capital’s eastern outskirts, they said.

No rebel casualties were reported after the larger incident at Thankot, the main entry point to the Kathmandu Valley south of the capital.

Police had blocked off the road at least 10 kilometres from the checkpoint and were carrying out search operations, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

Another three police were injured in the blast at the Dadhikot checkpost in Bhaktapur, east of Kathmandu, officials said.

The insurgents, who called off a fourth-month ceasefire at the start of January, have been fighting for a communist republic in Nepal since 1996.—AFP