Landmine Kills Two Soldiers In Balochistan

A spokesman for the Baluch Republican Army, Sarbaz Khan, later claimed responsibility for the attack QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) — Two paramilitary soldiers were killed and four wounded in a landmine explosion in insurgency-hit southwest Pakistan on Saturday, an official said. The soldiers were patrolling a gas field in the town of Dera Bugti in gas-rich Baluchistan province on the border with Afghanistan and Iran when a landmine planted on a roadside exploded under their vehicle.
"Two soldiers were killed and four others wounded in the incident," a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) told AFP.
A spokesman for the Baluch Republican Army, Sarbaz Khan, later claimed responsibility for the attack.
Hundreds of people have died in violence in the province since the insurgency flared in late 2004, with rebels demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's natural resources.
The province has also been hit by attacks blamed on Taliban militants and sectarian extremists.
Separately, an Afghan national was killed and 12 people wounded in a grenade attack targeting paramilitary soldiers in the town of Mastung, just south of the provincial capital of Quetta, police said.
"Unidentified men hurled a hand grenade in Mastung's main market at an FC vehicle passing by but it missed the target, killing an Afghan national and injuring 12 others," senior police official Malik Arshad told AFP.
He said four of the wounded were in critical condition, and had been taken to Quetta for treatment.