Three suspected rebels killed in Indian Kashmir attack

Indian soldiers Thursday killed three suspected militants who tried to attack an army base in Indian Kashmir, officers said, the latest incident to have hiked tensions with archrival Pakistan.

The heavily armed militants, wearing army fatigues, attempted to break through the camp's perimeter in Kupwara district before dawn but were repelled by soldiers in exchanges of fire.

"On being challenged, these three terrorists opened indiscriminatory fire on our sentry posts and also onto our living shelters where our jawans (soldiers) were resting," said Colonel Rajiv Saharan, the commanding officer of a counter insurgency unit at Kupwara.

"Three Pakistani terrorists were eliminated," Saharan told reporters.

A "huge quantity" of guns, grenade launchers and other weapons were seized from the militants and displayed for the media, he said.

The Indian army also said later Thursday they found the bodies of four suspected militants near the de facto border dividing Kashmir with Pakistan in Naugam following a bid by them Wednesday night to infiltrate the Indian side.

"One body was recovered in the afternoon and another three later in the day as the area was being combed," army spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia told AFP.

Thursday's attempted attack in Kupwara was the second in Indian-administered Kashmir this week after militants killed one soldier while trying to raid a base in Baramulla town on Sunday night.

Tensions have spiked since New Delhi said last week it had launched "surgical strikes" on militant posts across the disputed border that divides the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan.

A furious Islamabad denied the strikes, saying two of its soldiers were killed in cross border firing.

Indian and Pakistani troops regularly exchange fire across their Kashmir border known as the Line of Control (LoC), but rarely send ground troops over the line.

Relations have been strained since gunmen raided an Indian army base in Kashmir on September 18, killing 19 soldiers, the worst such attack in more than a decade. Since then the two armies have almost daily exchanged small arms and mortar fire along the LoC in Kashmir.

New Delhi blamed the attack on Pakistan-based militants, triggering a public outcry and demands for military action.

The army separately said earlier Thursday it had foiled overnight three attempts by suspected militants to cross the LoC and enter into Indian-administered Kashmir.

"The infiltration bids were assisted by Pakistan (army) posts," the officer said on condition of anonymity.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, but both claim it in full. Armed separatist groups in the Indian-controlled part of the territory have for decades been fighting to break free from New Delhi.

India regularly accuses Pakistan of arming and sending rebels across the LoC to launch attacks on its forces. Islamabad denies the claims.

The nuclear-armed rivals have fought three wars since they gained independence from Britain seven decades ago, two of them over Kashmir.

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