KATHMANDU, July 15: Eleven suspected Maoist rebels including two local leaders were killed in armed clashes with security forces in western Nepal on Thursday, police said.

The two leaders were killed as they tried to throw bombs at a security force patrol unit, officers said. However, a Maoist source claimed the two were killed by the army after they had been arrested.

Police identified the two leaders as Bharat Dhungana, Maoist party member of the Rasuwa, Dhading and Nuwakot districts, and Baikuntha Pokharel, a pro-Maoist students' union member in Dhading.

The chairman of the pro-Maoist All Nepal National Free Students' Union (Revolutionary), Lekhnath Neupane, vowed to launch violent protests in response to Pokharel's death. Nine other Maoist rebels were also killed in clashes with security forces at Sailung village on Thursday, police said.

Separately, an elderly woman was killed and five other people wounded in two separate bomb blasts on Thursday on the outskirts of Nepal's capital that were believed to have been caused by Maoist rebels, police said. An official said he was probing whether the woman was asked by the Maoists to plant one of the bombs. -AFP