Suspected Nepal Maoist rebels bomb US cultural centre, no casualties

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Suspected Maoist rebels hurled two homemade bombs at the US cultural centre in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu that exploded inside the compound, causing damage but no casualties, police said.


The attack on the United States Information Service complex marked the first time that the Maoists, who have been waging an increasingly bloody campaign to overthrow the monarchy, have damaged US government property, police said.


"Two homemade bombs were thrown over wall and landed inside the compound which damaged the washroom near the auditorium and also damaged a satellite dish," a senior police officer who did not wish to be named told AFP.


"This was an attack by Maoist suspects," he said, adding nobody was injured.


In separate attacks in 2002, Maoist rebel suspects killed two Nepalese who guarded US government diplomatic establishments in Kathmandu.


The United States supplies arms, helicopters and and training to the Royal Nepal Army to help it crush the eight-year-old insurgency in the impoverished kingdom.


India and Britain also give training and arms to Nepal's government to combat the revolt that has claimed some 10,000 lives since 1996.


The Nepalese government recently stepped up security for US, British and Indian diplomatic missions to protect them against rebel attacks.


There was no immediate comment from the US embassy in Nepal on the attack.


Security forces cordoned off the compound which is surrounded by a high brick wall and launched a search for the attackers who fled.


The blasts came as the rebels forced nearly three dozen companies to shut on top of 12 firms they closed last month, and followed US Ambassador James Francis Moriarty's condemnation of the Maoists' "use of terror against industry and Nepali workers to achieve political goals".


The United States has warned its citizens to postpone all but essential travel to the mountainous kingdom wedged between Nepal and India due to fears about security.


Violence has spiralled in Nepal since the collapse of peace talks in August 2003.


The attack came as Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, on the second day of a five-day trip to India, vowed Friday to end Maoist rebel "terror" in the tiny Himalayan kingdom and New Delhi offered more help to combat the insurgency.


The rebels, who already control vast areas of countryside, last month staged a week-long blockade of the capital Kathmandu that was mainly enforced through intimidation rather than roadblocks.