At least four soldiers were killed and five others injured Sunday in an attack by Muslim separatist militants in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said.
A spokesman said two militants equipped with AK-47 rifles and grenades stormed into an army camp at Dayalgam on the outskirts of Anantnag, 55 kilometres (34 miles) south of Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar, early Sunday.
The militants, who authorities said were apparently part of a suicide squad, barged into the camp opening fire and hurling grenades, killing four soldiers and critically wounding one more.
"The two militants are still inside and an intense exchange of fire is going on," a police official said.
The entire area has been cordoned off by army reinforcements that rushed to the scene.
Counter-insurgency police and paramilitary troops have also closed in on the army camp and ringed it from the outside.
The Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba took responsibility for the surprise attack. Lashkar spokesman Abu Osama told AFP by telephone from Pakistan-administered Kashmir that three of the movement's men were involved.
"Three of our men are involved in the attack. One of them has come out of the camp while two others are still fighting," said Osama.
He said Lashkar fighters had so far killed eight Indian soldiers.
Lashkar-e-Taiba recently vowed that its suicide squads would target Indian forces to avenge India's shelling of Pakistani territory on October 15.
Lashkar has carried out nearly 50 suicide attacks across Kashmir over the past year, inflicting heavy casualties on security forces.
More than 35,000 people have been killed since the start of an Islamic separatist insurgency in Kashmir in 1989 -- SRINAGAR, India, (AFP)
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