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Indian air strikes Kashmiri militants threaten sucide attacks

SRINAGAR: Kashmiri Mujahideen on Thursday warned of suicide attacks to avenge air strikes by the Indian air force on their hide-outs in the troubled northern state.

"We have decided to intensify suicide attacks against Indian security forces all over Kashmir," Abu Osama, a spokesman for a Mujahideen outfit told AFP over the telephone.

"Our activists will also increase other attacks to answer the air-strikes on Mujahideens by India," he said.

Russian Mi-17 helicopter gunships strafed Mujahideen positions in the mountains of the southern Kashmir district of Doda last week killing at least three fighters.

The spokesman of the outfit, claimed Indian forces had carried out air strikes against the Mujahideens in the past. "It is not a new thing for us," said Osama. "We know how to shield ourselves as we are used to these things".

Air Force chief, Amal Yaswant Tipnis last month said, air raids against Kashmiri Mujahideen would be conducted only as a "last resort".

The sorties which began before sunrise on Friday followed the May 20 massacre of 36 Sikhs, but officials insisted the raids were not an act of retaliation.

A Muslim independence drive raging in the Indian Occupied Kashmir since 1989 has left more than 25,000 people dead. AFP