Wars and Rumors of Wars

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Indian and Pakistani soldiers traded fire across the heavily armed Kashmir frontier for more than 12 hours overnight and into Tuesday in what the Indian army called the worst violation of a 2003 cease-fire agreement between the nuclear-armed neighbors. The night-long gunbattle came after one Indian soldier and four Pakistanis were killed Monday along the heavily armed frontier that divides Indian- and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, the Indian army said. Pakistan denied its soldiers were killed. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir. However, the frontier has been largely quiet since a 2003 cease-fire agreement, which has formed the cornerstone of a peace process between the two countries. Both sides have blamed the other for violating the cease-fire and New Delhi has accused Islamabad of helping Islamic rebels sneak into its part of Kashmir, a charge Islamabad denies. Nearly a dozen Islamic rebel groups have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the conflict.

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Turkish warplanes attacked Kurdish rebels in Iraq's north on Tuesday, killing a group of guerrillas gathered at a mountain cave, the military said. The Turkish strikes, which a pro-Kurdish news agency said were followed by shelling from Iran, came two days after bombs planted in an Istanbul neighborhood killed 17 people. The government blamed Kurdish rebels, who denied involvement in the deadliest attack on civilians in five years. The military said in a statement Tuesday that warplanes attacked rebel targets in northern Iraq, where the leadership of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, is based. The statement said many of a 40-strong rebel group outside a cave at Mount Qandil were killed. Turkey's military has said Turkey and IranIraq as a springboard for attacks on their countries. PKK rebels, who seek autonomy for Turkey's Kurds (yet another Islamic sect), have fought the Turkish state since 1984 in a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

• JJ Commentary: Muslims continue to be the leading cause of war and terrorism across the globe.