The Indian army says it has killed all three militants who entered an army camp at Khannabal, 50km south of the summer capital, Srinagar.

An army soldier and a civilian were also killed during the fighting.

Army officials said the militants were killed after the building in which they were holed up was hit with mortar fire and eventually blown up.

The militants drove up to the camp at 6pm local time on Wednesday, and lobbed grenades while sneaking in.

At least one Indian soldier was killed in as fighting continued through the night.

An eleven-year old girl travelling in a bus outside the camp was also shot and killed during an exchange of fire.

There are conflicting reports on the identity of the militants.

The Indian army says the militants belonged to the Harkat-ul Mujahideen and that two of them were Pakistanis.

But another group, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, has also claimed to have carried out the raid.

It is the latest of a series of such attacks on security camps in the valley by the militants in the past six months.

Two weeks ago militants stormed the headquarters of the special paramilitary taskforce in Srinagar and killed twelve policemen.

The attack also follows the release last month of a Muslim cleric and two pro-Kashmiri militants from Indian jail, in an exchange for hostages aboard a hijacked Indian airliner in Afghanistan.

Soon after returning to his hometown in Pakistan, the freed cleric, Maulana Masood Azhar, pledged to continue to fight Indian forces in Kashmir.