2 Soldiers, 5 militants killed in Kashmir gunfight

IANS SRINAGAR, FEBRUARY 13 Two soldiers and five militants of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were killed, while four army men, including a major, were injured in a gun battle in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, officials said. The bodies of five militants were found in Marsari village of Kupwara district, a police official told IANS. Security forces were looking for the bodies of several more guerrillas, believed to have been killed, in the debris of the house that was destroyed in the gunfight that began on Friday evening, the official said. Personnel from the Indian Army’s counter-insurgency Rashtriya Rifles, special operations group (SOG) of police and the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Friday surrounded an abandoned house in Marsari village following information that a group of guerrillas was hiding inside. When the security forces moved close to the house, the militants opened fire at them. In the gunfight that ensued, the house which the guerrillas used as a fortified bunker was destroyed.