Indian forces and suspected Islamic militants clashed in separate incidents in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Sunday, leaving six people dead, including two civilians and a news photographer, the army said.

A soldier and two gunmen were also killed in Sunday’s fighting and in one of the gunbattles six suspected militants holed up in a house, said Indian army spokesman Lt. Col. S.D. Goswami.

In the first clash, soldiers confronted a group of gunmen who had apparently infiltrated into the area across the de-facto border with Pakistan, said Goswami.

The militants were found in the village of Kehli Mandi about 220 miles south of Indian Kashmir’s main city, Srinagar. As soldiers approached, the gunmen opened fire, hitting a house. Two civilians inside were killed and two others were wounded, he said.

During the heavy exchange of fire, a soldier was killed and a news photographer was hit, said Goswami. The photographer Ashok Sodhi, who was covering the battle for the local English newspaper the Daily Excelsior, later died in hospital. It was not immediately clear which side shot Sodhi.

The army believes six militants were still holed up in a house in the village and by noon Sunday the two sides were still trading fire, Goswami said.

In a second clash two suspected militants were killed in a gunbattle with joint party of army and police in the forest area of Darsun, about 75 miles north of Srinagar, said Vijay Kumar, the area police chief. Kumar said the Indian forces suffered no casualties.

There was no immediate word from any of the more than a dozen Islamic rebel groups that have been fighting since 1989 for independence from mainly Hindu India or a union with Muslim-majority Pakistan, which controls the other half of Kashmir. Both countries claim the entire region.

More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict and India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.