At least 17 people including 11 rebels have been killed in fresh shoot-outs in India's Kashmir, where violence has escalated since last month's inconclusive summit between India and Pakistan.
Indian security forces, in a gunbattle today, shot dead two militants of the Laskar-eTaiba group in the village of Keegam near the Pakistan border, police said.
But a spokesman for Lashkar-e-Taiba said the two separatists had raided an Indian army camp and killed a handful of soldiers before being shot dead.
The two Mujahideen, who were members of the Fidayeen (Suicide) squad, stormed a camp at Keegam and killed at least ten soldiers, Abu Usama, spokesman for Lashkar-e-Taiba, told reporters. The Indian army did not confirm the casualties.
Keegaam lies in the Kupwara district 87 kms (54 miles) northwest of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
Later today, in the same area, a soldier was killed and an army officer wounded when militants ambushed an army patrol, police said. They said security forces shot dead three militants in gunbattles in Srinagar.
Indian soldiers also hot dead three foreign militants in Rajouri district southwest of Srinagar, police said.
Elsewhere, they said, five civilians and three rebels were killed in separate shootouts since yesterday evening.
Violence has escalated in the Himalayan region since a summit last month between India and Pakistan failed to produce any concrete result. Nearly 150 people, mostly rebels, have been killed since then.
Unidentified militants yesterday massacred 17 Hindu villagers in a remote village in Jammu and Kashmir state.
India, which controls 45 per cent of Kashmir, accuses Pakistan of arming and aiding Kashmiri militants. Pakistan which rules just over a third of the territory, says it only provides moral and diplomatic support to the separatists.