The Nepali army said on Friday faulty Indian assault rifles were partly responsible for its heavy death toll in a gun battle with Maoist rebels as troops hunted for 75 soldiers still missing after the fighting.
Forty-three soldiers and a civilian were killed when hundreds of rebels attacked an army base in the remote Kalikot district, 600 km from the capital, Kathmandu, late on Sunday.
The Maoists, fighting to topple Nepal's monarchy and establish communist rule, say they captured 52 soldiers after the raid, a claim rejected by the army.
Army spokesman Brigadier-General Dipak Gurung said the Indian-manufactured INSAS rifles malfunctioned during the fighting which continued for about 10 hours.
"Soldiers complained that the INSAS rifles did not function properly during the fighting which lasted for a long time," Gurung told a news conference when asked why the army death toll was high.
"May be the weapons we were using were not designed for a long fight. They malfunctioned," he said.
There were also fewer troops at the base as it was a road construction project and not a fighting base, he added.
The army casualties were the heaviest since Maoist violence escalated after King Gyanendra seized direct power in February by sacking the multiparty government.
"There were stoppages during the firing ... the rifles got hot and soldiers had to wait for them to cool," another officer told Reuters.
