SRINAGAR, Oct 11: Suspected Kashmiri militants lobbed hand- grenades and sprayed bullets as they forced their way into a paramilitary camp in Srinagar on Thursday, officials said.

One attacker was killed in the gunbattle, Prabhakar Tripathy, a spokesman for the Central Reserve Police Force, or CRPF, said, adding that three soldiers were also wounded.

Lashkar-i-Tayyeba claimed responsibility for the attack in a call to Current News Service.

Earlier Thursday, suspected militants ambushed an army convoy, leaving two soldiers dead, while four suspected militants were killed in separate gunbattles with troops, officials said.

Militants hit the soldiers from both sides of the road in a densely forested area in Watrigam, a village 45km north of Srinagar, killing two soldiers, said Lt. Neha Goyal, an army spokeswoman.

Militants fired on the troops, triggering a 5-hour gunbattle that killed two attackers, one of them a top commander, said deputy inspector-general of police B. Srinivasan.

Also on Thursday, an army patrol killed two suspected militants who allegedly entered occupied Kashmir from Pakistan, the spokeswoman said.

There was no independent confirmation of the army and police reports.

A cooking gas cylinder exploded, killing five soldiers and two civilians and injuring six soldiers inside a military camp in Hamray, a village 38km north of Srinagar on Thursday, Srinivasan said.

However, a man identifying himself as spokesman for Hizb-ul-Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the blast.—AP