SRINAGAR, India -- Six suspected rebels were killed Tuesday in gunbattles between government forces and insurgents in the forests of India-controlled Kashmir, bringing the death toll from five days of fighting to 25, the Indian army said.

People try to control the father of Shabir Ahmad Malik, a Kashmiri Muslim soldier from the Indian army, in Dab, 35 km (21 miles) north of Srinagar March 24, 2009. [Agencies]

Indian army spokesman Lt. Col. J.S. Brar said the fighting - which started Friday morning when a combined force of Indian army and police began flushing out militants in the Shamsbari area - was the longest and bloodiest in the disputed Himalayan region this year. He added that clashes appeared to have ended and troops were able to go into the area where the fighting has raged to recover weapons.

Nearly a dozen Islamic rebel groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its unification with neighboring Pakistan. More than 68,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the uprising and subsequent Indian crackdown.

The difficult terrain prevented troops from using heavy weapons against the militants, causing the fighting to drag on, Brar said.

People carry the coffin containing the body of Shabir Ahmad Malik, a Kashmiri Muslim soldier from the Indian army, in Dab, 35km (21 miles) north of Srinagar March 24, 2009. [Agencies]

Brar said the latest deaths take the number of rebels killed to 17, while 8 government troops were killed.

Government troops recovered several assault rifles, grenades and grenade launchers and several rounds of ammunition from the killed rebels, he added.

There was no independent accounts of the gunbattles - which had raged in a dense forest about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Indian Kashmir's main city of Srinagar - and no rebel group has claimed involvement so far.

Both India and Pakistan claim the Muslim-majority Kashmir region in its entirety and have fought two wars for control of Kashmir since they won independence from Britain in 1947.

Women relatives cry during the funeral of Shabir Ahmad Malik, a Kashmiri Muslim soldier from the Indian army, in Dab, 35km (21 miles) north of Srinagar March 24, 2009. [Agencies]