Pakistan: Militants kill 14 soldiers in Balochistan convoy ambush

[News_Editor]

Pakistan: Militants kill 14 soldiers in Balochistan convoy ambush

2012-01-13 07:28:29 GMT+7 (ICT)

QUETTA, PAKISTAN (BNO NEWS) -- Fourteen Pakistani soldiers were killed on late Wednesday when militants attacked a convoy in the southwestern region of the country, officials said on Thursday. It is the latest in a series of deadly attacks against security forces.

The attack happened on Wednesday evening and targeted a convoy of Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Constabulary (FC) in the mountainous Wakai area near Nawano checkpoint, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Turbat city in Balochistan province.

Officials said the group of suspected insurgents ambushed two vehicles of the FC convoy and fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) before opening fire. The attack was described as 'intense and rapid' as the soldiers were unable to defend themselves.

All fourteen FC service members on the two vehicles were killed, including two Junior Commissioned Officers. Emergency teams recovered the soldiers' bodies and shifted them to the district headquarters hospital in Turbat.

Local television reports said the outlawed Baloch Liberation Front (BLF) claimed responsibility for the attack.

On Monday, Pakistani authorities recovered the bodies of ten soldiers whose remains were taken during an attack by Taliban militants on December 21 when up to 100 Taliban militants attacked a military checkpoint located near Daboori in Orakzai Agency. The violent attack left thirteen Pakistani soldiers and several Taliban militants killed.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan previously claimed responsibility for the attack on December 21. The recovery of the bodies on Monday was the result of a negotiated deal which saw the bodies of the killed Taliban militants being handed over to the Taliban.

Last week, in an act to avenge the killing of militant commander Qari Kamran, militants killed 15 FC service members who had been kidnapped during an attack on a checkpoint in the town of Tank in North Waziristan on December 23.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-01-13