20 Pakistani soldiers killed in two attacks

At least 20 soldiers from the army and a paramilitary force were killed in two separate attacks in Pakistan, officials said on Thursday.

“Six soldiers, including an officer were killed in an attack on a convoy of security forces, in the tribal district of North Waziristan,” the military’s media wing Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement.

Terrorists used an improvised explosive device to target the convoy, the statement said.

In the second incident, at least 14 soldiers were killed when gunmen attacked security forces in Pakistan’s volatile Balochistan province, Sajjad Hussain, a police spokesperson in Quetta said.

The incident took place on the Makran Coastal highway in the Gwadar district of the south-western province, when unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy belonging to the paramilitary force Frontier Corps.

Mr Hussain said that two of the convoy’s three vehicles were destroyed after being hit by rocket launchers.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest and most volatile province that borders both Afghanistan and Iran, is being targeted by militants, sectarian groups and sub-nationalist rebels.

Gwadar is a coastal region near the Iranian border where China has built a deep seaport as part of its multi-billion-dollar investment project in Pakistan, which is opposed by Baloch separatists.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks so far.