Two policemen died instantly and another was critically wounded when separatist guerrillas fired at a group of police commandos in Jammu and Kashmir Thursday.
In a separate incident, security forces gunned down two guerrillas at Shopian town in Pulwama district.
Police sources here said a patrol of the Special Operations Group (SOG) was fired on by guerrillas at Anchidora in the south Kashmir town of Anantnag, 54 km from this summer capital.
"Two constables, Imtiyaz Ahmad and Sanjay Kumar, died while constable Arshad Hussain sustained bullet injuries," a police officer told IANS.
The attackers escaped after the ambush.
In Shopian town, 58 km from here, security forces said they killed two militants Thursday.
Thousands of people have been killed in an insurgency raging in Jammu and Kashmir since 1989.