SRINAGAR, 21 July 2005 — A suicide car bombing killed five persons including three soldiers, one civilian and the bomber, early yesterday in the Sonawar locality of Srinagar. Fifteen people were wounded in the attack.

The dead troopers included a major. Four soldiers injured in the attack are undergoing treatment in the Base Hospital inside the army’s 15th Corps Headquarters.

“It was a lethal strike aimed at a specific target which was carried out with precision,” a senior police officer said.

Severed branches of a Chinar tree and pieces of brick and mortar lay intermingled with human flesh at the site of the explosion.

“A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden Maruti car into an army jeep in the Sonawar locality around 9.30 a.m.,” said the Kashmir Inspector General of Police Javed Ahmad Mukhdoomi.

The blast came a day after the army reported a rise in militant infiltration into the Indian zone of Kashmir.

The car bomb had targeted two passing security force vehicles, Kashmir police chief Gopal Sharma told reporters at the scene. Sharma, however, said: “Four soldiers have died in the explosion.” Doctors at Srinagar’s main hospital added that a government employee was “brought dead” from the scene.

Police said despite evidence to the contrary they were investigating eyewitness claims that a car laden with explosives was driven into the back of an army vehicle, possibly by a suicide bomber.

“It is possible that the militant driving the car might have jumped out at the last moment,” said Makhdoomi.

He said troops have not been able to find the body or dismembered parts of a suicide bomber. “But still we are investigating. Experts are on the scene,” he said.

The region’s main militant group Hizbul Mujahedeen claimed responsibility in a telephone call to a local news agency.

The group made no mention of a suicide bomber. “It was a devastating blast,” said Abdul Majid, a government employee, who was passing by the area.

“We saw an army jeep thrown on the footpath. We could see at least one dead soldier whose head had been severed. Other civilians were lying in a pool of blood.”

The area was strewn with debris from a vehicle, bullet proof jackets and other army gear. The blast also damaged a nearby shopping center, shattering shop windows.

Middle-aged Mohammed Salim, who was hit by the shrapnel in his shoulder, could not believe he survived.

“It was an earth-shaking blast. The electric wires above started falling on the ground creating sparks, and the leaves and branches of huge Chinar trees littered the road in no time,” he told AFP.

Israr Ahmed, a teacher from the Burn Hall Christian missionary school near the explosion, said pupils were in class at the time and were unhurt. After the blast, many children ran outside in panic. Parents rushed to the school fearing their children may have been injured. The school management later closed the school for the day.

India’s new army chief in Kashmir said Tuesday more militants had been infiltrating from the Pakistani side of the disputed region since the snows began melting in the past few weeks. Lt. Gen. S.S. Dhillon said there had been a “sudden spurt” in infiltration and more than two dozen militants had been shot dead in the past 10 days by Indian troops along the de facto border dividing Kashmir.

—With input from agencies