Six persons including a captain of the army and a trooper besides four militants were killed in a fierce north Kashmir gun battle on Tuesday.

A senior police officer in Srinagar said that an army captain and his body guard both belonging to 2-Para regiment were killed in a fierce gun battle between the security forces and a group of holed up militants of Lashkar e Tayiba outfit in Chottimargi village in north Kashmir border district of Kupwara.

"On specific information that a group of LeT militants had been hiding in the Chottimargi village, an operation was launched early today jointly by the army and the special operations group of the police," a spokesman of Jammu and Kashmir police said in Srinagar.

The spokesman said, "As the security forces entered the village for house to house searches, a group of militants hiding inside a residential house started firing at them. The house was isolated and cordoned off."

He said, "As the troops tried to enter the house, militants opened indiscriminate fire at the raiding party. A captain of the army identified as, Hudson, was killed on the spot while another soldier also died resulting in a sustained gun fight that lasted for nearly four long hours."

"Four hiding militants were gunned down by the security forces from whom arms and ammunition including four AK-47 rifles were recovered."

Security forces have recently sped up their operations against the militants in Kashmir.