Nepal's Maoist rebels, fighting to topple the constitutional monarchy, have broken a four-month-old truce and attacked several targets across the kingdom killing at least 32 people.
State radio said 24 police officers were killed in overnight attacks on police posts in west Nepal, a key stronghold of the rebels, while eight soldiers were killed in a rebel raid on an army post in the same region.
There were no immediate reports of casualties among the rebels, who newspapers said also called for a general strike in the Himalayan kingdom on December 7th. No confirmation was available on the strike call.
The Maoist rebels, who model themselves on Peru's Shining Path guerrillas, are fighting to replace the monarchy with a communist republic.
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba came to power in July on a platform of peace with the Maoists, after the rebels stepped up attacks on remote police posts following the June massacre of most royal family members, including popular King Birendra.
Both sides then agreed on a truce and exchanged several prisoners in the run-up to the talks.
The rebellion began in early 1996 in some remote areas in Nepal's backward villages where peasants widely suffer feudal discrimination at the hands of landowners. More than 1,800 people have been killed since then.