Indian security forces surrounded a mosque in Kashmir on Thursday and exchanged fire with suspected armed Kashmiri nationalists hiding inside, hours after three Indian soldiers were killed in a separate ambush, police said. Seven people -- four soldiers and three armed nationalists -- have been killed in at least three clashes in the past 24 hours in the north of Jammu and Kashmir state, the Himalayan region at the center of a military standoff between India and Pakistan.

Sporadic gunfire continued into the afternoon as security forces laid siege to the mosque, about midway between the state's summer and winter capitals, Srinagar and Jammu.

Police said three or four men believed sheltered in the mosque in Banihal town after evading security forces which tried to capture them in a nearby house.

Kashmir nationalists fighting a bloody insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989 often shelter in mosques when pursued by Indian forces in the Indian-ruled province.

North of Srinagar, three Indian soldiers were killed in an ambush by nationalists on Wednesday night, Indian police said.
As well, an Indian soldier and three nationalists from Kashmir's main armed group, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, died in a gun battle in the neighboring area of Sopore earlier on Wednesday night.

Suspected nationalists last week attacked a slum in Jammu and killed 28 Hindus, almost two months to the day after militants killed more than 30 people in a raid on an Indian army camp that edged India and Pakistan closer to war.

India, which accuses Pakistan of backing the armed nationalists in Kashmir, has been restrained in its response to Saturday's attack as fresh diplomatic efforts get underway to resolve the standoff.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is due to arrive in New Delhi late on Thursday night and Secretary of State Colin Powell is also due to visit India and Pakistan this month.

About a dozen nationalist armed groups are fighting Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir. India says about 33,000 people have died since the rebellion began in full in 1989, but the nationalists put the toll closer to 80,000.

PHOTO CAPTION

Armed Indian police guard a checkpoint in Srinagar, India,Thursday, July 18, 2002. Security has been stepped up in the Kashmir valley as the Hindu pilgrimage for Amarnath begins July 19. The pilgrimage has been the target of fierce militant attacks in the past two years. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqboo