Nine militants killed in counter-terrorism operation in Pakistan

Nine militants were killed, while four Pakistani security forces were injured on Thursday in a counter-terrorism operation in Pakistan's Balochistan province, police said. Acting on a tip-off about a safe house of militants in Kabo Ko Mehran area of Balochistan's Mastung district, Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel raided the area.

"During the raid, there was a heavy exchange of firing between both sides in which nine suspected militants were killed, while four police commandoes were injured," a senior police official said. A huge cache of ammunition, explosives and weapons were also recovered from the hideout, he said.

The raid was part of a clean-up operation launched in the trouble-hit areas of Baluchistan after a spate of terror attacks in the province this month. Earlier this month, militants killed 14 security personnel in Omara. Similarly, five people, including a Navy personnel, were killed when armed militants stormed a five-star hotel in Gwadar town last week. Security forces shot dead three of the attackers and cleared the hotel after a nearly 12-hours operation.

Two days after the attack on the hotel, a roadside bomb hit a police mobile van in Quetta, killing four policemen and injuring nine others.