Srinagar, India, Dec 5, SPA -- A remote-controlled bomb placed ona roadside blew up an army patrol car in a pre-dawn attackSunday, killing an army major and 10 other men, policesaid. The powerful blast in Wachi village hurled the car skywardand left a 10-feet (3-meter) wide crater in the road,police officer Imtiyaz Ahmed told The Associated Press bytelephone from the site of the blast. "The car is completely damaged, totally twisted. It washurled several meters from the crater," Ahmed said. "Thebodies of the victims are in pieces. It is a very awfulsight." A man claiming to be a spokesman for the Hezb-ulMujahedeen militant group claimed responsibility for the blast in call to a local news agency, the Central News Service. The car, a private sports utility vehicle being used bythe army, was on night patrol when the explosion occurred,Ahmed said. The occupants included the major, eight armysoldiers, a police officer and the driver, he said. Wachi village is located 65 kilometers (40 miles) south ofSrinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmirstate. In the nearby Anantnag district, two militants were holedup in a mosque and engaged in a gunbattle with troopers whohad surrounded the building, police said. Firing had continued overnight after the men entered themosque late Saturday, a police officer said on condition ofanonymity. The 14-year insurgency in India's only Muslim-majoritystate has claimed more than 66,000 lives.--SPA1226 Local Time 0926 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/222390