GUWAHATI, Sept 20: Fourteen soldiers were killed in an ambush by heavily-armed militants in one of the deadliest attacks in India’s restive northeastern state of Manipur in years, officials said on Tuesday.

The militants ambushed a security patrol near the village of Nariang, about 35km southwest of Manipur’s capital Imphal, late Monday.

“Unidentified rebels using automatic weapons ambushed a road patrol of the army’s Gorkha Rifles killing eight on the spot,” a spokesman said.

Six of 12 soldiers wounded in the attack died on their way to hospital.

The troops were returning to their base by truck after search operations when the rebels struck, the spokesman said.

The Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) rebel group has claimed responsibility for the attack, a local newspaper office said.

Police described the attack as the bloodiest by the influential rebel group, fighting for an independent homeland for the majority Meities, in recent years. —AFP