Pakistan-based Lashker-e-Tayiba claimed the nine militants killed in a lengthy gun battle that took place in a forested area of Baramulla district in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday belonged to them.

"All the nine mujahideen killed in Ringiwalla Khall in Tangmarg area were members

of LeT and belonged to a fresh group, who came to the Kashmir valley recently," the outfit's spokesman, Abdullah Ghaznavi, told local news agencies in Srinagar over phone.

He said the slain militants did not include any commander of the outfit.

Ghaznavi claimed that two Army Majors and eight soldiers were killed during the firefight, which went on for three days.