15 Die in Attacks by Kashmir Separatists

Fifteen people, including two children, died Thursday as Islamic militants stepped up attacks on Indian security forces in Kashmir.

Three soldiers and two militants were killed when guerrillas ambushed an army convoy near the Banihal pass on the highway connecting Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, with Srinagar, the summer capital.

Police said the guerrillas opened fire as the convoy was about to enter the Banihal tunnel. The troops returned fire.

Two soldiers were killed in another ambush near Naugam, 125 miles north of Jammu. Separately, two militants died in a gun battle in Marmat, 105 miles northeast of Jammu, police said.

The two children were reported killed in Punch, near the India-Pakistan border.

A young girl died when she was caught in the cross-fire between security forces and militants. Separately, a teenage boy was killed in an explosion as he played near the main road through Punch, 45 miles southwest of Srinagar, police said.

Near Anantnag, 40 miles southeast of Srinagar, a member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group was killed in a shootout, police said. Another militant was killed in the border district of Kupwara.

Also Thursday, a man shot in downtown Srinagar on Sunday died of his injuries. Abdul Majeed Akhoon was the brother of a lawmaker.

Elsewhere, a land mine exploded as an army vehicle was passing through Bandipora, 45 miles north of Srinagar, killing one soldier, authorities said.

Representatives of two Islamic militant groups, the Hizbul Moujahedeen and the Al Badr Moujahedeen, called the Associated Press office in Srinagar to claim responsibility for setting off the mine.

They are among a dozen Islamic militant groups that have been fighting Indian security forces since 1989. They are seeking Kashmir’s independence from India.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir since their independence from Britain in 1947. A cease-fire line now divides the Himalayan province between the nuclear-capable rivals.