Six dead in suspected rebel attack

Suspected rebels woke up sleeping villagers in north-eastern India and opened fire with automatic weapons, killing six of them and raising the death toll to 63 from three days of violence in a region where dozens of ethnic rebel groups are fighting for separate homelands.

Seven people also were wounded when the group of heavily armed militants descended on Gelapukhuri, a village 130 miles north of Gauhati, the capital of Assam state, said police officer P. Baruah, who was reached from the region by telephone.