Police said suspected rebels killed six government soldiers and a policeman and lost one fighter in fierce gunbattles Saturday in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, AP reported. Government forces raided a suspected militant hide-out early Saturday, and four soldiers and one rebel were killed in an ensuing gunbattle, said Hemant Lohia, a deputy inspector-general of police. Two soldiers died at the scene and two others succumbed later in a hospital, Lohia said. The fighting took place in a forested area at Nildora village, 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state. Suspected insurgents fired weapons and threw hand grenades as the soldiers approached their hide-out, Lohia said. In a separate fighting, suspected guerrillas killed two soldiers and a policeman in Rampura village, 70 kilometers (45 miles) north of Srinagar, said Viplav Kumar, a senior superintendent of police. The number of rebel casualties was not immediately known.
