GAUHATI: India's army says it has killed five insurgents from a Naga rebel group months after it carried out an attack on the military in the country's remote northeastern region bordering Myanmar.

Col. Newton, an army spokesman who uses one name, says the soldiers attacked the rebels on Friday in Pangsha, a village in Nagaland state's Tuensang district.

In June, insurgents belonging to the National Socialist Council of Nagaland ambushed an Indian army convoy in neighboring Manipur state, killing 18 soldiers in their worst attack in two decades.

The group has been fighting for an independent homeland for the Naga tribes. It ended peace talks with the Indian government in June after 14 years of futile negotiations.