Indian Army launches massive counter-insurgency operation in NE India

The Indian Army Friday launched a massive counter-insurgency operation in the northeastern state of Manipur, a day after 20 soldiers were killed and 11 others injured in an ambush near the border with Myanmar, sources said.

"A massive operation has been launched to hunt down and eliminate the perpetrators of Thursday's massacre. Indian Army Chief General Dalbir Singh is also on his way to state capital Imphal to oversee the operations," the sources said.

Some 50 militants, suspected to be belonging to a group of organisations in the region as well as from Myanmar-based rebel groups, carried out the attack on the soldiers who were moving through a village in the state's Chandel district on a convoy of four vehicles.

The rebels first launched U.S.-made rocket-propelled grenades on the military vehicles and then opened indiscriminate fire on the soldiers, killing at least 20 on the spot. The injured have been admitted to a hospital where the conditions of some are said to be serious.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condemned the attack. " Today's mindless attack in Manipur is very distressing. I bow to each and every soldier who has sacrificed his life for the Nation, " he tweeted Thursday night.

The attack is said to be the worst casualties the Indian Army has suffered since the 1998 Kargil War with Pakistan. Endi