SRINAGAR, India: Five soldiers and two suspected rebels were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir during a firefight in the disputed Himalayan territory, an army officer said Thursday.
An “intense firefight” broke out Wednesday after troops pursued fighters into the dense forests of Kalakote in southern Kashmir, the army’s 16 Corps said in a social media post.
The fighting killed five soldiers, including two elite commandos, and left another soldier wounded, an army officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the military operation was ongoing.
The army did not give details of how many suspected rebels were involved.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the high-altitude territory in full, but administering separate portions of it.
Rebel groups have waged an insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan. The conflict has left tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and militants dead.
India blames Pakistan for backing the militants, a charge Islamabad denies, saying it only supports a Kashmiri struggle for the right to self-determination.
One of the two slain militants was identified as a “highly ranked” rebel leader, the army officer said, adding that the fighter was a Pakistani national who had been active in the area for the past year.
Last week, Indian soldiers killed eight rebels in the Kashmir valley, the epicenter of insurgency.
The Indian-controlled part of the territory has simmered in anger since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government annulled its limited constitutional autonomy in 2019 and imposed direct rule.
Indian authorities say at least 118 people have been killed in the conflict this year, including 11 civilians, 27 security forces and 80 suspected rebels.
Five Indian soldiers, two militants killed in Kashmir fighting
https://arab.news/gbbmh
Five Indian soldiers, two militants killed in Kashmir fighting
- Intense firefight’ breaks out Wednesday after troops pursue fighters into the dense forests of Kalakote in southern Kashmir
More than 9,000 flights canceled as major winter storm bears down across much of US
- “Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X
DALLAS: More than 9,000 flights across the US set to take off over the weekend have been canceled as a major storm expected to wreak havoc across much of the country threatens to knock out power for days and snarl major roadways.
Roughly 140 million people were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England.
The National Weather Service forecast warns of widespread heavy snow and a band of catastrophic ice stretching from east Texas to North Carolina.
Forecasters say damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival that of a hurricane.
Ice and sleet that hit northern Texas overnight were moving toward the central part of the state on Saturday, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said.
“Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X.
Low temperatures will be mostly in the single digits for the next few nights, with wind chills as low as minus 24 Celsius.
About 68,000 power outages were reported across the country at 8 a.m. ET, about 27,600 of them in Texas. Snow and sleet continued to fall in Oklahoma.
After sweeping through the South, the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about a foot of snow from Washington through New York and Boston, the weather service predicted.
Temperatures reached minus 34 C just before dawn in rural Lewis County and other parts of upstate New York after days of heavy snow.
Governors in more than a dozen states sounded the alarm about the turbulent weather ahead, declaring emergencies or urging people to stay home.
