Pakistani forces kill five Baluchistan rebels

QUETTA, Pakistan, June 14 (Reuters) Pakistani security forces have attacked a stronghold of militants fighting for control of gas resources in the southwest, killing five of the rebels, a government spokesman today said.

Rebels in Baluchistan, Pakistan's largest but poorest province and its biggest source of natural gas, were suspected of planting a bomb on Monday in the provincial capital, Quetta, that also killed five.

A spokesman for the provincial government, Razik Bugti, said paramilitary forces backed by helicopter gunships attacked a militant camp in the Dera Bugti district yesterday.

''We killed five miscreants and wounded seven, who are now in our custody,'' Bugti said.

''They were operating from that camp and had planned to attack a gas field in the area,'' he said. ''We destroyed the compound and 23 caves in nearby mountains where they had stored a huge cache of weapons.'' Baluch nationalists say the people of the province get little benefit from its resources, in particular its gas.

A renegade Baluch tribal chief, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, condemned the offensive by security forces and said only civilians were killed. He did not say how many.

Baluch rebels have waged a low-key insurgency for decades but their campaign has intensified over the past year. Pakistan accuses its old rival India of meddling in the province, which borders Afghanistan.

Thirty-five people were detained during the investigation of Monday's bomb attack in Quetta. Eleven of those detained were ''key suspects'', provincial police chief Chaudry Mohammad Yaqoob told a news conference.

Police were investigating to determine if they had a connection with the Baluch Liberation Army rebel group, he said.

Azad Baluch, a spokesman for the shadowy group, said by telephone it did not target civilians and was not behind the bomb.

Seven suspected BLA rebels had been arrested in recent days in connection with other blasts, Yaqoob said.

REUTERS SY BD2209