14 soldiers including Major killed in ambush

QUETTA - Fourteen Pakistani soldiers were killed Monday in an ambush blamed on militants in the country's southwestern Baluchistan province, the Frontier Corps paramilitary force said.

It was one of the deadliest attacks on Pakistani troops and marked the highest number of military dead in a single incident since March.

Up to four dozen militants struck before dawn in the Musa Khel district, 400 kilometres (250 miles) southeast of Quetta.

The military said the troops were guarding a private coal mine and blamed the attack on militants, who rose up in 2004 to demand political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the province's wealth of natural resources.

"Fourteen paramilitary personnel, including a major, were killed and several others were wounded. Baloch militants were involved," the spokesman told AFP.

Security officials said the attackers were armed with automatic weapons and that most of the soldiers died from gunshot wounds.

Baluch militants oppose the military presence in Balochistan and there have been a string of attacks on troops in the area.

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