Army says 10 killed in clashes with militants in Indian Kashmir

Enlarge Photo Army says 10 killed in clashes with militants in Indian Kashmir

Sun, May 11 09:56 PM

SRINAGAR, India (AP) _ Indian forces and suspected Islamic militants clashed Sunday in two separate incidents in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing 10 people, including three civilians and a news photographer, the army said. Two soldiers and four gunmen were also killed in the fighting, as one gunbattle raged for more than 16 hours after soldiers surrounded six suspected militants holed up in a house, Indian army spokesman Lt.

Col. S.

D. Goswami said.

In the first clash, soldiers confronted a group of gunmen who had apparently infiltrated the area from across the de facto border with Pakistan, Goswami said. The militants were found after dawn in the village of Kehli Mandi, about 220 miles (350 kilometers) south of Indian Kashmir's main city, Srinagar.

As soldiers approached, the gunmen opened fire, hitting a house, killing two civilians inside and wounding two others, he said. During the daylong gunbattle two soldiers, two militants, a civilian and a photographer were killed.

Goswami said five soldiers and a policeman were also wounded. After storming the house, soldiers discovered the bodies of two gunmen and troops were searching for the others, said Goswami.

The photographer Ashok Sodhi, 45, was covering the battle for the local English newspaper the Daily Excelsior. The newspaper's chief photographer was believed to be the sixth journalist killed since the outbreak of fighting in Kashmir in 1989.

He worked for the newspaper for 25 years and rushed to the scene of the fighting as soon as it erupted, said bureau chief Sanjeev Pargal. In the second clash, two suspected militants were in a firefight with army and police in the forest area of Darsun, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Srinagar, said Vijay Kumar, the area police chief.

Kumar said the Indian forces suffered no casualties. There was no word from any of the more than a dozen Islamic rebel groups that have been fighting for independence from mainly Hindu India or a union with Muslim-majority Pakistan, which controls the other half of Kashmir.

Both countries claim the entire region. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.

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