Suspected nationalist fighters attacked a police post in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing nine police officers and two civilians, police said Sunday. Another eight police officers and one civilian were wounded in the attack that occurred Saturday night in the mountainous Gool area in Udhampur district, nearly 95 miles north of Jammu, the winter capital of Indian-held Kashmir, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

At least three nationalist groups separately claimed responsibility for the attack, which lasted nearly an hour.

Suspected fighters killed an armed police guard outside and barged into the police post around 11:30 p.m., then sprayed bullets and killed another eight police officers and two civilians inside the post, the officer said.

Some police officers returned fire, but the attackers escaped, the officer said.

Police said the nationalists' attack was apparently in retaliation for the killing of a suspected nationalist leader in the region last week by the Indian army.

It was the second major assault by suspected nationalists in the Jammu region of Indian-held Kashmir in the past three days. On Friday, suspected fighters killed seven people, including three police officers, in the town of Punch.

More than a dozen nationalist groups have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan since 1989. More than 61,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

PHOTO CAPTION

Indian policemen and local people look on at the police post in the mountainous Gool area in Udhampur District, nearly 150 kilometers (95 miles) north of Jammu, India, Sunday March 16, 2003. (AP Photo/Str)