Five Chinese, driver killed in Pakistan suicide attack
Five Chinese nationals working on a major dam construction site were killed along with their driver on Tuesday when a suicide bomber targeted their vehicle in northwest Pakistan, officials said.
Their vehicle plunged into a deep ravine off the mountainous Karakoram Highway after the bomber rammed his car into them and detonated his explosives, police said.
"Five Chinese and their local driver were killed in the attack," Muhammad Ali Gandapur, a senior provincial police official, told the news agency.
He said the vehicle was travelling between the Dasu hydroelectric dam site, under construction by the China Gezhouba Group Company, and the capital Islamabad.
Zahid Khan, a senior local police official, told AFP that "a suicide bomber crashed his vehicle into theirs".
"The vehicle caught fire and plunged down the ravine," he said.
Militants also killed one soldier as they attempted to storm a major naval air base in the country's southwest, Pakistan's military said on Tuesday.
"Strategic projects and sensitive sites vital for Pakistan's economic progress and the well-being of its people are being targeted as a conscious effort to retard our progress and slow discord between Pakistan and its strategic allies and partners, most notably China," the army said.
The Chinese embassy in Islamabad described the bombing as a "terrorist act" in a statement reported by Chinese state media.
"The Chinese embassy and consulates in Pakistan strongly condemn this terrorist act, and express deep condolences for the victims of both countries and extend sincere sympathies to the families of the victims," the embassy said.