Srinagar, July 26 (IANS): Homage was paid to the martyrs of the 1999 Kargil conflict at the Drass war memorial in Ladakh Sunday.

Officers and jawans, as well as families of many of the martyrs, laid wreaths at the war memorial in the morning.

More than 500 Indian soldiers were killed in the Kargil conflict of 1999 when heavily armed intruders, aided by Pakistan army, crossed the line of control in Kargil, Drass, Batalik and Turtok with the intention to cut off the strategic Srinagar-Leh national highway.

"The intruders had come as close as three hundred metres to the national highway," said Sankarshan Thakur, a senior journalist who reported the Kargil conflict in 1999 and was in Drass Sunday for the function.

Lt. Gen. (Retd) Amar Nath Aul, who was a brigadier in 1999 and headed the mountain brigade that pushed the intruders back in the Drass sector and recaptured the strategic Tiger Hill, said: "It is an experience no soldier can ever forget. I salute the untiring commitment of my boys who fought against all odds and did not deter in laying down their lives when it came to protecting the country."

Aul, who retired from the army last month, was in Drass to remember and honour the brave men of his mountain brigade who won laurels during the Drass operation.