Kashmir avalanches kill three more soldiers

SRINAGAR: Avalanches have killed another three Indian soldiers in Kashmir, bringing the military death toll in the snow-hit region to 21 in the past four days, an army spokesman said on Thursday.

The latest deaths occurred when two separate avalanches hit army camps high on the Siachen glacier, a hotly disputed zone on the India-Pakistan border which, at 6,300-metres (20,800 feet), is known as the world's highest battleground.

"The avalanches hit an army post and a base camp in Siachen killing three soldiers," army spokesman JS Brar said in Srinagar.

On Monday, 17 Indian soldiers were killed when an avalanche slammed into a group of 70 combat troops at a high-altitude warfare training camp near Kashmir's main ski resort of Gulmarg.

And on Tuesday a soldier was killed when an avalanche hit an army post in the northern sector of Tangdhar.

Frequent avalanches and landslides occur in Kashmir during the winter, often blocking roads and leaving communities isolated.