Assailants fired rockets at a residential compound owned by a state-run oil company in southwestern Pakistan on Monday, and paramilitary troops retaliated, leaving at least five people injured, an official said.
"Huh huh! This is soooo kewl! Go ahead an' launch the rockets, Mahmoud!"
[Whoosh! Kaboom!]
[Bang! Bang! Bangety bang!]
"Ow! Hey! That hurt!... Ow!" |
At least eight rockets were fired in the attack near an oil field operated by the Oil and Gas Development Corporation in Uch, a tribal region about 250 miles southeast of Quetta, said Mohammed Abbas, a local government administrator. Paramilitary soldiers guarding the residential area that houses workers from the oil field returned fire with mortars and assault rifles, Abbas said. He said that three rockets landed near an officers' mess in the compound and that the other rockets crashed into a nearby field.
Both oil company employees and attackers were among the injured, but the breakdown was not immediately clear.
"They got me, Mahmoud!"
"Me, too, Ahmed!" |
"The exchange of fire is going on and we fear more injuries," Abbas said. No one claimed responsibility but attacks against security forces at oil and gas extracting facilities are common in the area. Authorities blame local tribesmen for launching the rockets to press the government to increase royalties for gas extracted in their territories.
| So it's just the Bugtis again. Nothing to see here. Move along... |
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