Heavily armed rebels in India’s restive north-east have killed at least 20 troops, police say, in one of the worst attacks in the area in years.
Another 12 soldiers were seriously wounded in the ambush on a military convoy in Manipur state, which has been plagued by insurgent violence for decades.In the biggest militant attack on the army in recent years, at least 18 soldiers were killed and another 11 injured when they were ambushed Thursday morning in the Moltuk valley of Chandel district in Manipur.
Manipur, with a population of 2.5 million, has struggled for years in the grip of an armed insurgency in which several tribal militant groups are active.
Eleven soldiers were also wounded in the most deadly attack in the region in recent years, which targeted a troop convoy heading for Imphal, the capital of the state bordering Myanmar.
Troops from 6 Dogra Regiment were heading from their base in Moltuk toward Pallel when their convoy was ambushed at around 8 am, according to Army and Manipur Police sources.
The troops were returning to their HQ in Nagaland’s Dimapur and were travelling in a convoy of four trucks that were carrying 46 soldiers in all, they added.
The wounded have been taken to a military hospital in Manipur.
No militant groups have so far claimed responsibility for the ambush, which police and the military said was one of the biggest attacks on security forces in the state in recent years.
“Some of the vehicles in the convoy were blown up beyond recognition,” a senior army official said on condition of anonymity.