An Indian paramilitary soldier stands guard at a closed market during a strike in Srinagar. — File Photo by AP/File

SRINAGAR: An official said suspected militants had ambushed and fatally shot three Indian army soldiers in Indian-administered Kashmir.    

Lt. Col. Ankur Vashist, an army spokesman, said the soldiers were on their way to search Buchoo village on Friday following intelligence that some Kashmiri militants were hiding there.

The attack took place 40 kilometres south of Srinagar, the main city in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Militant groups have been fighting for independence from India or merger with Pakistan since 1989.

More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the fighting since 1989.

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the insurgents, a charge denied by Islamabad.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and the two have fought two wars over its control.

The official US figures of number of strikes and estimated deaths remain classified. —File Photo.

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama said Thursday that he will engage Congress in exploring a number of options for increased oversight of lethal drone strikes outside of war zones like Afghanistan.        

The official US figures of number of strikes and estimated deaths remain classified.

But, according to the New America Foundation, which maintains a database of the strikes, the CIA and the military have carried out an estimated 416 drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, resulting in 3,364 estimated deaths, including militants and civilians.

The Associated Press also has reported a drone strike in Somalia in 2012 that killed one.

The think tank compiles its numbers by combining reports in major news media that rely on local officials and eyewitness accounts.

Strikes in Pakistan spiked in 2010 under Obama to 122. But the number has dropped to 12 so far this year. Strikes were originally carried out with permission of the Pakistani government of Pervez Musharraf, though subsequent Pakistani governments have demanded strikes cease.

Most of those killed by the strikes in Pakistan are militants, according to the New America Foundation database.

The CIA and the military have carried out some 69 strikes in Yemen, with the Yemeni government’s permission.

2002 – Up to 10 killed in 1 strike in Yemen

2003 – None.

2004 – Up to 7 killed 1 strike in Pakistan

2005 – Up to 15 killed 3 strikes in Pakistan

2006 – Up to 94 killed 2 strikes in Pakistan

2007 – Up to 63 killed 4 strikes in Pakistan

2008 – Up to 301 killed 37 strikes in Pakistan

2009 – Up to 634 killed in 56 strikes in Pakistan and Yemen

2010 – Up to 855 killed in 123 strikes in Pakistan and Yemen

2011 – Up to 647 killed 87 strikes in Pakistan and Yemen

2012 – Up to 621 killed in 81 strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia

2013 – Up to 118 killed in 22 strikes in Pakistan and Yemen

Total estimated strikes: 417

Total estimated deaths, including militants and civilians: 3,365

President Barack Obama talks about national security, Thursday, May 23, 2013, at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington. -AP Photo

WASHINGTON: Declaring America at a ”crossroads” in the fight against terrorism, President Barack Obama on Thursday revealed clearer guidelines for the use of deadly drone strikes, including more control by the US military, while leaving key details of the controversial program secret.    

The president also announced a renewed push to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, including lifting a moratorium on prisoner transfers to Yemen.

However, shutting the prison will still require help from Republicans reluctant to back Obama’s call to move some detainees to US prisons and try them in civilian courts.

Obama framed his address as an attempt to redefine the nature and scope of terror threats facing the US, noting the weakening of al-Qaida and the impending end of the US war in Afghanistan.

”Neither I, nor any president, can promise the total defeat of terror,” Obama said in remarks at the National Defense University.

”What we can do, what we must do, is dismantle networks that pose a direct danger, and make it less likely for new groups to gain a foothold, all while maintaining the freedoms and ideals that we defend.”

Since taking office, Obama’s counterterrorism strategy has increasingly relied on the use of strikes by unmanned spy drones, particularly in Pakistan and Yemen.

The highly secretive program has faced criticism from congressional lawmakers who have questioned its scope and legality.

The president, in his most expansive public discussion on drones, defended their targeted killings as both effective and legal.

He acknowledged the civilian deaths that sometimes result, a consequence that has angered many of the countries where the US seeks to combat extremism, and said he grapples with that trade-off.

”For me, and those in my chain of command, these deaths will haunt us as long as we live,” he said. Before any strike, he said, ”there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured, the highest standard we can set.”

Ahead of the address, Obama signed new ”presidential policy guidelines” aimed at illustrating more clearly to Congress and the public the standards the US applies before carrying out drone attacks.

Officials said the guidelines include not using strikes when the targeted people can be captured, either by the US or a foreign government, relying on drones only when the target poses an ”imminent” threat and establishing a preference for giving the military control of the drone program.

However, the CIA is still expected to maintain control of the drone program in Yemen, as well as in Pakistan’s tribal areas, given the concern that al-Qaida may return in greater numbers as US troops draw down in Afghanistan.

The military and the CIA currently work side by side in Yemen, with the CIA flying its drones over the northern region out of a covert base in Saudi Arabia, and the military flying its unmanned aerial vehicles from Djibouti.

—File Photo.

TEHRAN: An Iranian semi-official news agency reports the country is denying that an unmanned drone violated the airspace of Bahrain, the strategic Gulf kingdom that hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.

The Thursday report by ISNA quotes an unnamed official in Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

The statement did not elaborate, instead urging Bahrain’s rulers to pay attention to their people’s demands.

On Wednesday, Bahrain said an Iranian drone has been found in the tiny island kingdom across the Persian Gulf from Iran.

Bahrain has repeatedly accused Shiite Iran of encouraging the more than two-year-long uprising in Bahrain by its majority Shias.

Iran denies it has any direct role.

Iran has recently claimed advances in its technology in unmanned aircraft.

Solar Impulse, piloted by André Borschberg, takes flight during the second leg of the 2013 Across America mission, at dawn, Wednesday, May 22, 2013, from Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. — AP Photo

DALLAS – A solar-powered plane has landed in Texas, completing the second leg of a trip across the United States.

The Solar Impulse is making the first attempt by a solar airplane of flying day and night without fuel across the US.

The plane landed early Thursday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport after taking off Wednesday from Phoenix.

The plane flew its first leg from California in early May. From Dallas, it will fly to Lambert-St. Louis airport, Dulles airport near Washington and New York’s John F. Kennedy airport.

Each flight leg takes 20 or so hours, with multiday stops in each city.

Pilot Andre Borschberg is one of the plane’s creators along with Bertrand Piccard.