Troops, tribal militants clash in Pakistan

The gunbattle took place near Loti town, where a natural gas field run by the state-owned Oil and Gas Development Co Ltd. is located.

The militants also attacked a natural gas pipeline near Loti, the top administration official in the area, Abdul Samad Lasi, told Reuters. Two militants were killed, he said.

Another government official said one paramilitary trooper was also killed.

Baluch militants have been waging a low-level insurgency in the resource-rich southwest province for decades for greater political and economic autonomy.

They have intensified attacks, in recent months, on government targets such as natural gas and transport facilities.

The attacks follow a crackdown by Pakistan security forces on Baluch rebels after a rocket attack on Dec. 14 when President Pervez Musharraf was visiting the town of Kohlu in the area.

Baluchistan nationalists say hundreds of people have been killed in clashes but analysts say this could be an exaggeration.

Earlier Pakistani Police Saturday arrested nearly 60 tribesmen suspected of involvement in attacks on security forces and government installations in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, police said.

Police detained some 57 suspects including 24 arrested in a raid on a camp run by rebels from the Marri tribe near the provincial capital Quetta, city police officer Mujibur Rehman said.

The 33 other men were picked up during raids at different neighbourhoods just outside Quetta, Rehman said.

Sparsely-populated Baluchi-stan province has been in the grip of a sporadic insurgency blamed on tribal groups pressing for greater autonomy and a share in the income from the region's vast natural resources.