950804

Indian army

kills eight

guerrillas

GUWAHATI, (India): The Indian army killed eight guerrillas belonging to a separatist tribal group in the northeastern state of Nagaland, an army spokesman said on Friday.

The spokesman told Reuters an army patrol killed the rebels and seized a cache of weapons from their hideout after an hour-long gunbattle in Tuentsang district, about 150 km northwest of the state capital Kohima, on Thursday.

The weapons included a machine gun, an AK-57 rifle, M-22 and M-21 sten guns, a self-loading rifle, a double- barrelled rifle, a grenade and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition, he said.

He said the dead included two leaders of the Isaac/Muivah faction of the rebel National Socialist Council of Nagaland.

The Naga insurgents are one of many groups active in India's seven northeastern states which for some four decades have been fighting for independence or their own states within India.-Reuter