Maoist rebels kill 17 Indian police in ambush - senior officer

Hundreds of Maoist rebels killed 17 policemen in an ambush on a patrol in eastern India, a senior police officer said on Sunday, in the deadliest attack reported in the region this year. The attackers struck in a remote and forested area of Sukma district in Chhattisgarh state on Saturday, the inspector general of the state's police force, P. Sundarraj, said.

"There was a heavy exchange of fire," he told Reuters The far-left guerrillas have been fighting in eastern, central and southern forest areas since the 1960s, demanding more rights for the poor and for tribal groups.