QUETTA, Feb 1: Another 10 soldiers of Frontier Corps who had been wounded in attacks on their posts in Marwar area on Tuesday night, died on Wednesday.

This brought the number of soldiers killed in the attack to 16. Eleven soldiers were injured in the attacks and some soldiers are reported to be missing.

Sources said that the four checkposts had been attacked and the assailants first fired rockets and later used heavy automatic weapons.

“Armed men targeted four FC checkposts recently set up by the Frontier Corps to provide protection to a coalmine in Marwar,” the sources said.

The attackers later came down from nearby mountains and set the Khushdil checkpost on fire. Bodies of five soldiers were found at the place.

After killing the soldiers the attackers took away their weapons.

The sources said that after receiving information about the attacks, FC troops deployed in Machh and other areas rushed to the place and engaged the attackers. The gunbattle, according to their claim, continued for several hours.

Meanwhile, Merick Baloch, a spokesman for banned Baloch Liberation Army, calling from an unspecified place, said the BLA had attacked six checkposts and killed 35 FC soldiers. He said they had also kidnapped three FC soldiers.

The sources said that seven bodies had been found in mountains in the Marwar area.

“They might have been killed in reaction to attacks on the FC posts,” they said. The bodies were found in the mountains from where the militants had launched the attacks.