PATNA, India — Maoist insurgents claiming to fight for India’s rural poor killed at least 76 soldiers Tuesday in a series of carefully planned ambushes in the forests of eastern India, underscoring the rebels’ strength despite a government offensive.
The attack by hundreds of Maoists in a rebel stronghold in Chhattisgarh state was the deadliest by the militants against government forces in their 43-year insurgency.
The rebels launched the initial attack early in the morning, firing on a group of soldiers as they returned to base from a two-day patrol in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada forests, S.K. Pillai, the federal home secretary, told reporters in New Delhi. Seventeen more soldiers were killed when they stepped on land mines the Maoists planted throughout the ambush zone.
R.K. Vij, the inspector general of the Chhattisgarh police, said more than 500 guerrillas — known as Naxalites — were involved in the attacks. He said 76 soldiers were killed and seven wounded. The Associated Press
