Suspected Militants Kill 4 in Kashmir

Two suspected Islamic militants stormed an army camp in Kashmir early Saturday and killed six soldiers before they were slain, police said.

The attack came on the last day of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s three-day tour to the region, the first presidential visit to the Indian-held portion of Kashmir in five years.

The guerrillas attacked the army brigade headquarters in Sunjwan on the outskirts of Jammu by scaling the wire fence and detonating a hand grenade, police said.

The two attackers were killed in an exchange of gunfire with troops that lasted more than two hours. Another seven soldiers were wounded.

The army has not confirmed the casualties.

Al Nasreen, a little-known Islamic rebel group, claimed responsibility for the attack, in a call to the British Broadcasting Corp. office in Jammu.

Elsewhere, the army killed two commanders of the rebel group Hezb-ul-Mujahedeen in pre-dawn fighting on Saturday near Beerwah, a town some 15 miles southwest of Srinagar, army spokesman Lt. Col. Mukhtiar Singh said. There was no independent confirmation of the army claim.

A government soldier and three suspected rebels were killed in a gunbattle on Thursday. Three government soldiers and seven suspected insurgents were killed in unrest on Friday.

More than a dozen Islamic rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan since 1989. More than 63,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed during the insurgency.