The Army has intensified a combing operation in Jammu & Kashmir’s Rajouri district a day after four soldiers lost their lives in an ambush of two vehicles on Thursday.

The vehicles carrying personnel to an anti-terror operation site, a few kilometres away, were navigating a blind curve at Dhatyar Morh when they came under fire. The operation began on Wednesday based on “hard intelligence” about the presence of terrorists in the area, an official said.

The ambush was the sixth such attack since October 2021 in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch. Two captains have been among 29 Army personnel who have lost their lives in these attacks.

Images and videos taken after the fresh attack showed a green army SUV riddled with bullets and its windows shattered, with rifle cartridges and blood visible on the ground.

In May, five commandos of the para special forces were killed in an IED blast triggered in Rajouri. The previous month, five personnel were killed when they were in a truck ambushed in Poonch.