SRINAGAR, India: Three Indian soldiers and their two civilian porters were killed in a rebel ambush in Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said Friday.
Police said rebels sprayed bullets at an army vehicle carrying troops close to the highly militarized line of control near the resort town of Gulmarg on Thursday night. The de facto frontier divides the disputed Kashmir between India and Pakistan, which they both claim in its entirety.
Two soldiers and two civilians working as porters with the Indian military were killed and three other soldiers were wounded, police said. One soldier later died at a hospital, they said. The military said it was a brief firefight and gave no other details.
There was no independent confirmation of the incident.
On Sunday, gunmen fatally shot at least seven people and injured five others working on a strategic tunnel project near another resort town of Sonamarg. Police blamed militants fighting against Indian rule for decades for the attack.
Militants in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
Nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
3 Indian soldiers and 2 civilians are killed in an alleged rebel ambush in Kashmir
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3 Indian soldiers and 2 civilians are killed in an alleged rebel ambush in Kashmir
- Two soldiers and two civilians working as porters with the Indian military were killed and three other soldiers were wounded, police said.
- One soldier later died at a hospital, they said. The military said it was a brief firefight and gave no other details
Zelensky presses EU to tap Russian assets at crunch summit
- “Russian assets must be used to defend against Russian aggression and rebuild what was destroyed by Russian attacks. It’s moral. It’s fair. It’s legal,” Zelensky said
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was among those agreeing strongly as he said there was “no better option“
Brussels: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told EU leaders Thursday they had the “moral” and legal right to use frozen Russian assets to fund Kyiv — as pressure grew on key player Belgium to drop its opposition at a summit showdown.
The 27-nation bloc is scrambling to bolster its ally Ukraine, as US President Donald Trump pushes for a deal with President Vladimir Putin to end the fighting.
Officials have insisted leaders’ talks in Brussels will last as long as it takes to hammer out an agreement, saying both Ukraine’s survival — nearly four years into the war — and Europe’s credibility are at stake.
“We will not leave the European summit without a solution for the funding of Ukraine,” European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said.
The EU’s executive wants to fund a loan to Ukraine by using frozen assets from Russia’s central bank, though it is holding on to a back-up plan for the bloc to raise the money itself.
The EU estimates Ukraine needs an extra 135 billion euros ($159 billion) to stay afloat over the next two years — with the cash crunch set to start in April.
Zelensky said Kyiv needed a decision on its financing by the end of the year and that the move could give it more leverage in talks to end the war.
“Russian assets must be used to defend against Russian aggression and rebuild what was destroyed by Russian attacks. It’s moral. It’s fair. It’s legal,” Zelensky said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was among those agreeing strongly as he said there was “no better option.”
But Belgium’s Prime Minister Bart De Wever — who held talks with Zelensky on the sidelines — seemed unconvinced so far.
“I have not seen a text that could persuade me to give Belgium’s agreement,” he told Belgian lawmakers before the summit kicked off.
The vast bulk of the assets are held by international deposit organization Euroclear in Belgium, and the government fears it could face crippling financial and legal reprisals from Moscow.
EU officials say they have gone out of their way to allay Belgian worries and that multiple layers of protection — including guarantees from other member states — mean the risks are minimal.
“At this stage, the guarantees offered by the Commission remain insufficient,” De Wever said.
- Ukraine’s looming cash crunch -
In a bid to plug Kyiv’s yawning gap, the Commission has proposed tapping 210 billion euros of frozen assets, initially to provide Kyiv 90 billion euros over two years.
The unprecedented scheme would see the funds loaned to the EU, which would then loan them on to Ukraine.
Kyiv would then only pay back the “reparations loan” once the Kremlin compensates it for the damage.
In theory, other EU countries could override Belgium and ram the initiative through with a weighted majority, but that would be a nuclear option that few see as likely for now.
De Wever insisted that the EU should go for its alternative plan of raising money itself — but diplomats said that option had been shelved as it needed unanimity and Hungary was firmly against.
Bubbling close to the surface of the EU’s discussion are the US efforts to forge a deal to end the war.
Zelensky said Ukrainian and US delegations would hold new talks on Friday and Saturday in the United States.
He said he wanted Washington to give more details on the guarantees it could offer to protect Ukraine from another invasion.
“What will the United States of America do if Russia comes again with aggression?” he asked. “What will these security guarantees do? How will they work?“
