Republished May 20, 2016 - 3:24 AM
Original Publication Date May 19, 2016 - 11:45 PM
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani police acting on intelligence killed 14 al-Qaida members and other militants in two separate shootouts in central Pakistan, authorities said Friday.
Eight al-Qaida operatives and other militants were killed near the city of Multan, in Punjab province, on Wednesday, according to a statement issued by the province's counter terrorism department. It said several of the accomplices managed to flee but were traced to the district of Dera Ghazi Khan, where six were killed in a firefight with security forces the following day.
Among those killed was a man linked to a 2010 militant attack on two mosques of the Ahmadi minority sect in the eastern city of Lahore that killed 97 people.
Other were involved in attacks against the security forces, the counter terrorism department said.
Also Friday, three suspected suicide bombers were killed when one of the insurgents accidentally detonated his suicide jacket while approaching the northwestern city of Peshawar on a motorcycle from the Khyber tribal region bordering Afghanistan, police official Shakir Ullah said.
He said officers were still trying to identify bodies of the men.
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Associated Press Writer Riaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this story.
News from © The Associated Press, 2016