10 Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Attack near Iranian Border

Ten Pakistani troops were murdered earlier this week in an attack claimed by separatists in the restive southern region of Balochistan, according to the Pakistani military.

The army announced in a statement on January 27 that militants attacked a security post in the Kech district, resulting in a battle that killed 10 soldiers and one assailant.

The attack took place over the course of two nights, from January 25 to January 26, according to the report, which also stated that one of the attackers was killed as a result of the forces' retaliation fire.

Security forces eventually apprehended three rebels, according to the military, and the search for those who initiated the assault is still ongoing.

A purported spokesman for the Balochistan Liberation Front claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement. According to the spokesman, one of the terrorists was killed in the encounter, bringing the total military death toll to 17.

Since 2004, sectarian bloodshed, Islamist militant attacks, and a separatist insurgency in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, have claimed hundreds of lives.

The latest incident occurred just days after the Baloch Nationalist Army (BNA), a recently founded separatist group based in Balochistan, claimed responsibility for a January 20 bomb in Pakistan's second-largest city, Lahore, which killed three people.