Indian security forces kill 8 Maoist rebels

RAIPUR, May 24 (AFP): Indian security forces have killed at least eight Maoist insurgents, police said Friday, the latest clash in a decades-long conflict being waged in the country's central forests.
The guerrillas were shot dead over two days in a remote part of the central state of Chhattisgarh, where several deadly assaults on rebel encampments have occurred this year.
Security forces had cordoned off a forested area in Dantewada district after receiving intelligence that insurgent cadres were meeting there.
Seven rebels were killed on Thursday while another was shot dead on Friday, police inspector general Om Prakash Pal told AFP.
"The Maoists were engaged in intermittent firing" at security forces all through Thursday, he said.
A large quantity of weapons including automatic firearms had been recovered from the site of the gun battle, he added.
More than 100 Maoists have been killed in India this year, according to police figures, the vast majority in Chhattisgarh.
The insurgents, who are known as Naxalites and say they are fighting for the .