BIJAPUR, India: Twenty-two Indian police and paramilitary forces were killed and 30 others wounded in a gunbattle with Maoist rebels in a central Indian state, police said Sunday, in the deadliest ambush of its kind in four years.
Some 2,000 security personnel were on the hunt for a Maoist rebel leader in Bijapur district in Chhattisgarh state on Saturday when they were ambushed, a police officer said.
“So far it is confirmed that 22 security personnel were killed,” Chhattisgarh police’s Additional Director General Ashok Juneja said of the almost three-hour battle in the Maoist rebel stronghold.
“The search operation is still underway and the exact figure will be known... late Sunday evening.”
The injured personnel were admitted to two government-run hospitals in Bijapur and Chhattisgarh’s capital city Raipur.
More than a dozen others remained missing, he said, adding that an unknown number of Maoists were also killed in the encounter.
Juneja said the rebels looted weapons, ammunition, uniforms and shoes from the security forces who were killed.
The death toll could rise further, another senior police officer in Bijapur district said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that the “sacrifices of the brave martyrs will never be forgotten,” while Home Minister Amit Shah wrote on Twitter that India would “continue our fight against these enemies of peace & progress.”
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel wrote on Facebook Sunday that Shah had assured him of “all the necessary help” from the national government against the militants.
The toll was the worst for Indian security forces battling the far-left guerillas since 2017, when 25 police commandos were killed in an attack.
Seventeen police from a commando patrol were killed in an attack by more than 300 armed rebels in Chhattisgarh in March last year.
Sixteen commandos were also killed in the western state of Maharashtra in the lead-up to India’s election in 2019, in a bomb attack that was blamed on the Maoists.
The militants – who say they are fighting for rural people and the poor – have battled government forces across eastern India since the 1960s.
Thousands have been killed in the fighting.
Maoist rebels kill 22 Indian security forces in gunbattle: police
https://arab.news/zckcq
Maoist rebels kill 22 Indian security forces in gunbattle: police
- Some 2,000 security personnel were on the hunt for a Maoist rebel leader when they were ambushed
- The injured personnel were admitted to two government-run hospitals
Hegseth vows most intense day yet of US strikes as Iran aims to fight on
- Netanyahu meanwhile said: “We are breaking their bones”
- “No nation takes more precautions to ensure there’s never targeting of civilians,” Hegseth said
WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday will be the most intense day yet of US strikes inside Iran as the Islamic Republic, its firepower diminished, vowed to fight on.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said: “We are breaking their bones” and said the war’s aim is a popular overthrow of Iran’s government.
US President Donald Trump, for his part, has sent contradictory signals about how long the war could last, causing wild swings Monday in financial and fuel markets. The US stock market and oil prices were holding relatively steady Tuesday.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf dismissed any suggestion Tehran has sought a ceasefire. Another top Iranian security official, Ali Larijani, appeared to threaten Trump himself, writing on X that “Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.”
Hegseth says US is taking the investigation on a school strike ‘very seriously’
Responding to a question shouted by a reporter at a news conference about accountability for the strike, Hegseth said that “we take things very, very seriously and investigate them thoroughly.”
“No nation takes more precautions to ensure there’s never targeting of civilians,” he said, adding that “open source information” shouldn’t be used to determine what happened.
Satellite images, expert analysis, a US official and public information suggest the explosion that killed at least 165 people, mostly children, was likely caused by US airstrikes that also hit an adjacent compound associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Trump erroneously claimed Monday that Iran has access to the American Tomahawk cruise missile, the weapon likely used to strike the school.
