Attacks kill nine soldiers

Attacks killed nine soldiers on Tuesday, targeting troops in the militant-infested tribal badlands near Afghanistan and further south on the border with Iran, officials said. The deadliest attack killed five paramilitary troops travelling in a routine convoy between the towns of Turbat and Mand, some 680 kilometers (370 miles) south-west of Quetta.
"Five paramilitary soldiers were martyred and five others were wounded in the bomb blast," a paramilitary commander told AFP. There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Balochistan has seen a recent upswing in violence linked to a separatist insurgency, sectarian violence and Islamist militancy. In the tribal belt, three soldiers were killed in North Waziristan, considered a leading militant fortress and where Pakistan is under huge US pressure to launch an offensive against the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.