Indian jets bomb rebels in Kashmir, Pakistan on alert SRINAGAR, India, May 26 (AFP) - Indian warplanes for the first time bombed Pakistan-backed Moslem rebels Wednesday in the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir, as Islamabad put its armed forces on high alert. Pakistan blamed its arch-rival for the latest escalation and said it reserved the right to "retaliate" if the situation worsened, but India warned it would take "appropriate action" if Pakistani forces intervened in the air strikes. Indian Air Force MiG-23 bombers backed by helicopter gunships attacked the northern Kashmir regions of Kargil, Batalik, Drass and the Moshka Valley in two waves from 6:30 a.m. (0100 GMT) Wednesday. Officials said a third strike was likely later in the day. India said the target of the air offensive was some 400 separatist guerrillas, including Afghan Taliban fighters, who had allegedly sneaked in under cover of Pakistani artillery fire since May 9. Moslem rebels had taken up positions in the higher ridges of the 14,036-square-kilometre (5,398-square-mile) Kargil mountain zone, 100 kilometres (62 miles) northeast of Srinagar, after entering Indian Kashmir. Indian and Pakistani forces have been locked in cross-border artillery clashes on the Kashmir border since May 9. The two countries have fought three wars since 1949, two of them over Kashmir. International fears about their rivalry have been heightened since the two tested nuclear weapons a year ago. The air strikes, which took Pakistan by surprise, prompted concern in the United States but its ambassador to India, Richard F. Celeste, on Wednesday ruled out intervention by Washington. "No way, there is no question of this," Celeste said after meeting Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday urged India and Pakistan to "exercise restraint and cease the fighting." Pakistan said its army was "on high alert" and was "very, very carefully monitoring the situation on the Line of Control," the 720-kilometre (450-mile) de-facto border between the two zones of the contested territory. India moved in thousands of troops to dislodge the fighters from the Kargil ridges amid fears the heights could be used to guide Pakistani gunners to attack the key Srinagar-Leh road. Air Commodore Subhash Bhojwani, Indian Air Force director of offensive operations, said: "We utilised all types of aircraft in the sector" and attacked targets at high altitude with a "wide range of weaponries." He insisted that the warplanes did not violate Pakistani airspace during the campaign, although Islamabad alleged that a few Indian bombs had landed on "our side" without causing damage. Bhojwani said: "As per the first intelligence reports the strikes were effective ... The Indian army is determined to eliminate the intruders." He added that on Monday, Pakistan tried to shoot down an Indian military survey plane with a surface-to-air missile over Kashmir. India's deputy director-general of military operations, Brigadier Mohan Bhandari, said at least 160 Moslem militants had been killed in Kargil and scores injured since May 9. "There is evidence of the increasing involvement of Pakistani forces in the exercise," he added in New Delhi, as the air force took over Srinagar's civil airport for military operations. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Tuesday night said he had told his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif by telephone that the attacks were intolerable. India holds two thirds of Kashmir with Pakistan controlling the other third, and both countries claim ownership of the territory. More than 24,000 people have died in a decade-long Moslem separatist campaign in Kashmir. The heightened military tensions in Kashmir threaten to undermine a delicate spirit of detente which came from a historic summit in February between Vajpayee and Sharif in the Pakistani city of Lahore. The Bombay stock exchange plunged by more than two percent as the crisis escalated.  