Officials say 1 policeman, 6 insurgents killed as rebels launch rocket attacks in southwest Pakistan

Rockets fired by separatist insurgents killed a police officer and wounded a dozen other people overnight in southwestern Pakistan, officials said Tuesday, in apparent retaliation for Pakistani strikes on what it said were insurgent hideouts in Iran ea...

QUETTA, Pakistan -- Rockets fired by separatist insurgents killed a police officer and wounded a dozen other people overnight in southwestern Pakistan, officials said Tuesday, in apparent retaliation for Pakistani strikes on what it said were insurgent hideouts in Iran earlier in January.

Six insurgents were also killed in the ensuing shootout, according to the government.

The outlawed Baluchistan Liberation Army quickly claimed the attacks, writing that two of its fighters were killed.

Authorities initially said that the attacks, in the district of Mach in Baluchistan, were foiled without causalities, but two local security officials said at least one policeman was killed and 15 members of the Pakistani security forces were wounded in multiple rocket attacks. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

The BLA threatened to launch attacks on security forces in Baluchistan and elsewhere following Pakistan's Jan. 18 strikes on their camps in Iran, which killed at least nine people. Those strikes were made in response to an Iranian strike in Pakistan that appeared to target a different Baluch militant group with similar separatist goals.