Troops gun down 7 tribal rebels in Manipur

Troops late Monday stormed a thickly wooded area near Tuisomyang village in Manipur state, setting off a three-hour gunfight that left dead seven militants, a police spokesman said.

He said the dead belonged to the Kuki Revolutionary Army, an outlawed movement fighting for an independent homeland for Manipur's minority Kuki tribe.

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The troops, who belonged to the paramilitary Assam Rifles unit, seized arms from the hideout and may have wounded other militants who fled.

The Kuki Revolutionary Army is one of 19 separatist groups fighting in Manipur, where more than 10,000 people have died in insurgency in the past two decades.