Indian soldier, rebel killed, six wounded in Kashmir ambush

INDIA: An Indian trooper and a rebel were killed Sunday and six other soldiers wounded when their convoy was ambushed by three Islamic militants in Kashmir, an army spokesman said.

"Their convoy was ambushed with AK rifle fire and grenades near the (southern) town of Pampore," army spokesman Vijay Batra told AFP.

"The ambush was launched by three militants. Our swift action has led to the death of one of them," he said, adding that army reinforcements had launched a search operation to track down two others.

The hardline rebel group Lashkar-e-Toiba claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to the local Current News Service..

Meanwhile thirteen people were killed and two wounded when Maoists detonated a landmine under a vehicle in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, police said on Saturday.

The incident took place late on Friday in the Bastar region, about 250 km south of the state capital Raipur, senior police officer Pradeep Gupta told Reuters.

He said the Maoists probably mistook the vehicle for a police jeep.

Srinagar, Raipur, Sunday, AFP, Reuters