At least 42 security personnel were killed and 27 others were injured in two simultaneous rebel attacks in Jumla and Gorkha, Radio Nepal and security sources said.

Fourteen policemen were killed and 13 others were injured in the Maoist attack on Jumla where the airport has been destroyed, Radio Nepal said quoting security sources.

District headquarters Khalangha bazaar is now under the control of security forces. Rebels also attacked government and police offices; the army barrack is intact. Some senior civilian officers are reported missing.

Security forces Thursday night repulsed a rebel  attack on Dhangadi in far west Nepal were Maoist casualties are feared, Radio Nepal said quoting police. There were no army or police casualties.

Rebels launched two simultaneous murderous attacks 600 kms northwest of the capital in Jumla and another on a police outpost in Gorkha 100 kms northwest of the capital one day after a three-day national strike to protest the suspended November 13 national elections.

Until the fresh attacks, 219 soldiers, including officers, have died and 308 others were injured after Maoists first targeted the army by attacking a barrack in Ghorai, Dang, on November 23 last year.

More than 4050 rebels have been killed and 400 others have been injured in security operations against Maoists since then. Altogether 873 civil police, 97 armed police and 773 civilians have been killed in nearly seven years before the outbreak of the fresh violence Thursday night.

The attacks coincided with a CNN interview with underground leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara at an undisclosed place in which the former negotiator with the government of then Prime Minister Sher

Bahadur Deuba said the rebels were ready for a cease-fire.

“If the government agrees to a political solution, we are even ready for a cease-fire,” Mahara said.

“… it seems the government is not ready for talks or a political solution so we are being forced to a stand-off,” he said.

Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand said recently human rights activists are attempting to broker a peace.