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Five killed in attack on Indian army camp

SRINAGAR: Muslim freedom fighters stormed an Army camp during heavy snowfall, sparking a shootout that left five people dead, Indian Army officials said on Thursday.

The dead included a civilian, an Indian soldier and three militants who raided the complex late Wednesday at Khannabal in Anantnag, some 50 kilometres south of Srinagar, Brigadier Arun Chopra said.

The militants first lobbed a grenade into the camp and then launched a frontal assault, firing at random and killing one Army guard instantly.

Soldiers returned fire as the militants barricaded themselves in one particular building.

"This morning we blew up the building in which the three militants had taken shelter," Chopra said. "All three were killed. "One of them is called Haroon and the other Abdullah".

A teenage girl travelling in a jeep on the Highdway next to the Army camp was killed in crossfire, the officer said.

Muslim militants fighting to end Indian rule in Occupied Kashmir have in recent times steeped up attacks on heavily-guarded police and Army camps in the state.

Ten security personnel and two Muslim guerrillas were killed last month following a dare-devil attack by the militants on the camp of an elite police unit in Srinagar.

More than 25,000 people have died in the Occupied struggle. AFP