Four heavily-armed ‘fidayeen’ (suicide attackers) stormed an Army’s brigade headquarters in Uri town of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Sunday, killing at least 20 soldiers while leaving 20 others injured, officials and reports said. Four militants were also killed in over three-hour-long gunfight.

Sources in the Army said four of the injured soldiers were critical and one of them was airlifted to New Delhi for specialized treatment. The rest of the injured are being treated at Army’s 92-base hospital in Srinagar.

The Uri attack comes barely eight days after four militants took shelter at a mini-secretariat near Army’s 93 Brigade headquarters in Poonch area of Jammu province and started heavy firing, killing a policeman and injuring two others. All the four militants were killed in the gunfight that had lasted for two days.

The Uri fidayeen attack has taken place at a time when Kashmir is witnessing an anti-India uprising amid complete shutdown that entered its 72nd day on Sunday. At least 86 people have been killed so far in the uprising triggered by the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

The Uri attack, according to a senior Army officer, took place at 5:25 am as the militants, armed with automatic rifles and grenades, stormed the Army’s battalion headquarters of 10 Dogra regiment in Uri town—over 100 kms north of summer capital Srinagar.

The Army admitted that the Uri attack is first of its kind in recent years wherein they have suffered huge loss of soldiers. In January this year, seven forces personnel were killed when six militants attacked Pathankot air-base in Punjab.

Today’s attack comes two years after militants carried out a similar attack at Mohra in Uri sector. 10 security personnel were killed in the attack that took place on December 5, 2014.