Commandos gun down Maoist chief, 26 rebels

Indian commandos shot dead the Maoist insurgent chief and 26 other guerillas on Wednesday, the country's home minister said, calling it a decisive blow to the decades-long conflict.

- 

India is waging an all-out offensive against the last vestiges of the Naxalite rebellion, named after the village in the foothills of the Himalayas where the Maoist-inspired guerrilla movement began nearly six decades ago.

More than 12,000 rebels, soldiers and civilians have died since a handful of villagers rose up against their feudal lords there in 1967.

At its peak in the mid-2000s, the rebellion controlled nearly a third of the country with an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 fighters.