At least 10 security officials and 37 militants were killed as ethnic Baloch separatists launched "coordinated" attacks across Pakistan's Balochistan province on Saturday, an official said, the latest violence in insurgency-hit southwest region.

 

"The terrorists ... launched coordinated attacks this morning at more than 12 locations,” a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

 

"Thirty-seven terrorists have been eliminated... Ten security personnel were martyred while a few others were injured," the official added.

 

Pakistan has been battling a separatist insurgency in Balochistan for decades, where militants target state forces, foreign nationals and non-locals in the mineral-rich southwestern province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.