"The fact I would like to bring across is that these (suicide) attacks will be there as we are maintaining relentless pressure on them (militants)," said Lieutenant General Hari Prasad, the chief of Indian army's northern command, which takes care of Kashmir's security.

"Probably they (suicide attacks) will increase," he told a news conference late Wednesday at the army headquarters in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian-administered Kashmir.

Prasad received minor shrapnel injuries when an Islamic rebel Tuesday attacked a group of officers at Tanda garrison near the Indian Kashmir winter capital Jammu. A brigadier was killed and two other generals injured.

Prasad said he had been supervising an operation in the Tanda garrison when the militant aimed grenades at them.

"The militant was shot and the two grenades exploded in his hands, resulting in minor injuries to me and my colleagues," he said.

The group of officers had been inspecting the carnage caused when two other militants earlier Tuesday raided the military camp and shot dead seven soldiers before they themselves were gunned down.

Prasad said the attacks were "part of the complete war" Indian troops are fighting within Kashmir.

Last month 12 soldiers died in a similar attack in Jammu.

Prasad said there was not much soldiers could do to prevent such attacks.

"When a man is prepared to give his life there is very little you can do to stop him," said Prasad. "But we will definitely try to bring our casualty level to zero."

Kashmir has been periodically rocked by rebel attacks since the first of its kind was launched July 13, 1999 in north Kashmir in which a senior para-military officer and several of his men were killed.

An attack on the state legislature building on October 1, 2001 left 40 people dead, including five attackers.

More recently, militants on April 27 this year launched a suicide attack on the state-owned radio station in Srinagar that left five security force personnel dead.

Prasad said militants were launching attacks to lift the morale of their cadres, which has been weakened by continuing army operations in which "six to eight" militant are being killed daily.

He said some 2,500 to 3,000 militants are operating in Kashmir.

"For the last seven to eight years we have been eliminating some 2,000 militants every year, and this year we have killed more than 700 of them so far," he said.

WAR.WIRE