Nine militants killed in Kashmir

The army in Indian-administered Kashmir says Indian troops have killed nine Islamic militants trying to cross the Line of Control.

An army spokesman said the killings had come in two separate incidents in the Machil and Naushera Nar sectors of the northern Kupwara district.

There is no independent confirmation of the Indian statement.

Earlier, police in Indian-administered Kashmir said a member of the security forces had been wounded when Muslim rebels attacked the home of a politician standing in controversial elections beginning next month, Abdul Rahman Lone.

They said the rebels had attacked his house with hand grenades and sprayed it with automatic gunfire, injuring a guard.

Mr Lone was unharmed.

The police also say that an army major was killed and two other soldiers injured in a rebel attack in the northern Kupwara district of Kashmir.

They say a militant was killed in a clash near the joint camp of counter-insurgency police and paramilitary forces in the village of Branwar.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service