13 Nepal Army soldiers feared dead in forest fire

KATHMANDU - As the fate of Nepal’s beleaguered army chief Gen Rookmangud Katawal hung in limbo with the Maoist government unable to fire him summarily due to growing pressure at home and from the international community, the army suffered another setback Thursday when at least 13 soldiers were feared to have been killed in a forest fire.

The soldiers had been called out to combat a forest fire in Ramechhap district, east of capital city Kathmandu.

The army headquarters in Kathmandu said 13 soldiers were feared to have been killed. There were no immediate details.

This is the first severe casualty suffered by the army since 2006, when the Maoist guerrillas they had been fighting signed a peace pact and ended the decade-old insurgency that had killed over 13,000 people.