Suicide bomber targets soldiers in southwest Pakistan | Conflict News

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Suicide bomber rams motorcycle into a truck in Balochistan province, killing nine members of a paramilitary force.

At least nine soldiers have been killed and several wounded in a suicide attack in southwest Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

“At least nine soldiers of the paramilitary Balochistan Constabulary were killed in a blast,” Ijaz Ahmad, spokesman for the local police said on Monday.

The forces were travelling on a bus in Kachhi district of Balochistan province – some 160km (100 miles) southeast of provincial capital Quetta – when the vehicle exploded, according to the spokesman.

Spokesman Mehmood Khan Notizai told Reuters news agency that a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle “hit the truck from behind”.

The soldiers were returning from a local week-long cattle show where they had been providing security, officials said.

Hospital officials said at least seven policemen were wounded in the attack, the latest in a series targeting security personnel in Pakistan.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said investigators are looking into the nature of the explosion.

“This is not the first time that the police or the paramilitary forces or the regular regular military forces have been targeted in Balochistan,” he said.

Ethnic Baloch armed groups have been fighting the government for decades, accusing it of exploiting Balochistan’s rich gas and mineral resources.

More to follow.