Six FC personnel martyred as convoy attacked in Kech district

Fourteen others wounded; no group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far

QUETTA: Six security officials were killed in an attack in Balochistan's Kech district on Friday when their convoy came under heavy firing near the border with Iran.

The province has been hit by a number of attacks on security personnel but the number of large scale incidents has decreased significantly since 2016.

The provincial information minister Zahoor Ahmed Buledi told Reuters that six members of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force in charge of security in the region were martyred in “heavy” firing along a mountainous stretch of road in the district.

Fourteen others were wounded. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Militants linked to the Taliban, al Qaeda and Islamic State have been operating in the province, which borders Iran as well as Afghanistan.

Last month, three militants from the separatist Baloch Liberation Army stormed the Chinese embassy in Karachi, martyring four people including two policemen.

They were shot and killed by police before they could force their way in a car packed with explosives.

In July, a suicide bomber detonated in the middle of a crowded election rally in the province, killing 128 people including electoral candidate Siraj Raisani. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the blast.