Gunbattle leaves 2 dead, 4 wounded in Kashmir

Two civilians were killed and four soldiers wounded Friday in a gunbattle between Islamic militants and security forces in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, police said. The clash started when the militants fired on an army convoy driving through the town of Sopore, 50 kilometers north of the area's capital, Srinagar, said police officer Imtyaz Hussain. Two civilians were caught in the crossfire and killed, he said, adding that four soldiers and another three civilians were wounded. More than a dozen Islamic militant groups operate in Jammu-Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, where most people favor independence from mainly Hindu India or a merger with neighboring Islamic Pakistan.