SRINAGAR: A woman and three soldiers were killed on Thursday when rebels ambushed an army convoy in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), police said. The soldiers were returning from a search operation when the rebels attacked their convoy, injuring six, three of whom later died. The civilian woman was hit by a stray bullet and died, police said. “Three army soldiers succumbed to their injuries at the army hospital in Srinagar,” said a police spokesman who asked not to be named, referring to the main city in Indian-held Kashmir. Area superintendent of police Tahir Saleem told AFP the woman, who lived near where the ambush occurred in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, was hit by crossfire. The area was one of the main centres of violent protests last year against the killing of a popular rebels leader in a gun battle with Indian troops. More than 90 civilians were killed and thousands more injured in clashes between protesters and government forces. Clashes occur frequently in Kashmir between rebel groups and the roughly 500,000 Indian troops deployed in the region since 1989. The groups want independence or a merger with Pakistan for the majority Muslim region.