SRINAGAR: Suspected rebels killed at least eight Indian paramilitary soldiers and wounded another 20 in a highway ambush Saturday that was one of the year’s deadliest attacks in the Indian portion of Kashmir, authorities said.

Two of the attackers were killed by soldiers who returned fire, said K.K. Sharma, a paramilitary force officer.

The ambush occurred on the outskirts of Srinagar, the main city in India-held Kashmir. Twenty soldiers of the Central Reserve Police Force were wounded as one bus in the six-vehicle convoy came under attack by suspected rebels, said Nalin Prabhat, a senior officer of the Central Reserve Police Force.

They have been shifted to a hospital in Srinagar and the condition of three of them was stated to be critical. The attackers came in a car and fired at the convoy, Sharma said.

Militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility for the assault and said two insurgents were killed in an exchange of gunfire with Indian forces that lasted nearly an hour.