Amnesty International Thursday said it found “unprecedented” levels of human rights abuses in Nepal in the year since peace talks between Maoist rebels and the government broke down, AP reported from London.

In a new report, the human rights watchdog said unlawful killings accounted for at least half the 4,366 deaths the Nepalese government has attributed to fighting since talks collapsed in November 2001.

The Nepal government says 4,050 of those killed were Maoists and that Maoists have killed 800 civilians. The report says there were some 3,000 unlawful killings in Nepal over the last year,

compared with some 1,350 overall from the previous five years of the seven-year insurgency.

The Amnesty report, entitled “Nepal: A deepening human rights crisis,” said many of those unlawfully killed by the security forces were civilians targeted for their real or perceived support for Maoist rebels. The report said that others were Maoists deliberately killed by the security forces after being taken prisoner, or killed after being arrested.

AI accused the Maoist rebels, who want to overthrow the kingdom’s constitutional monarchy, of killing civilians they consider “enemies of the revolution.” It also alleged that they took hostages for ransom, tortured captives and recruited children into their ranks.