Indian security personnel killed after ambush by Maoists

India on Sunday recovered the bodies of 20 police and paramilitary troops killed in a gunbattle with Maoist rebels a day earlier in the forests of the eastern Chhattisgarh state, police said.

The fighting erupted Saturday when Indian security forces, acting on intelligence, raided a rebel hideout in Bijapur district, police said.

It was India's deadliest engagement with the Maoist rebels in four years. The government has said the insurgents, inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, pose the country's most serious internal security threat.

At least 22 Indian troops were killed and 31 others wounded, with seven in critical condition, said senior police officer D.M. Awasthi. One security force member was still missing, he said. The body of one female insurgent was recovered Saturday.

Ashok Juneja, the Inspector General for anti-Maoist operations, said the rebels also suffered heavy casualties but had carried away their slain comrades' bodies. Speaking with The Associated Press by phone, Juneja said the fleeing rebels took weapons and ammunition from slain security personnel.

Another paramilitary officer, Hemant Kumar Sahu, said some 400 rebels had gathered in the area.