Asia

Asia

Militant ambush kills six in Pakistan

21 January 2011 04:36 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Pro-Taliban militants have ambushed a convoy of a foreign oil company in Pakistan’s violent northwestern region, killing at least six people and abducting two others, APA reports quoting Press TV.

More than a dozen militants targeted the convoy of Hungarian oil group MOLE near the Kohat district on Thursday.

Officials say the attackers killed two officials and captured two others before fleeing in waiting cars.

Four Pakistani soldiers guarding the convoy were also killed.

"Two company officials were killed along with four soldiers from the paramilitary Frontier Corps who were providing escort to the team," AFP quoted senior police official Fazal Naeem as saying

Security officials have blamed pro-Taliban militants for the attack.

The Pakistani army has launched several operations in the troubled northwest in a bid to flush out militants from its tribal zone.

Since late 2009, there has been a surge in militant bomb attacks in Pakistan.

Militant attacks and political unrest have claimed the lives of over 4,000 people throughout Pakistan since 2007, reports say.