Gunmen kill at least 11 Pakistani policemen

Two gunmen on motorcycles sprayed a truck full of policemen with machine-gun fire in this Pakistani town near the Afghan border…

Two gunmen on motorcycles sprayed a truck full of policemen with machine-gun fire in this Pakistani town near the Afghan border today, killing at least 11 and wounding nine, police said.

Most of the police were members of the minority Shiite sect of Islam, a Shiite leader in the southwestern town of Quetta said, suggesting the attack may have been the latest by extremist Sunnis.

The policemen were riding in the back of a pickup truck on their way to a training school when they came under attack on Quetta's main thoroughfare, said a police spokesman.

The gunmen fled, and no arrests had been made.

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The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

"We want the government to arrest the culprits," Musa said.

The killings were the third in just over a week against Shiites in Quetta, capital of southwestern Baluchistan province.

Pakistan's population is 80 percent Sunni Muslim, the majority sect in Islam. Though the two sects mainly get along, small groups of extremist Shiites and Sunnis frequently attack each other.

On Friday, motorcycle gunmen in Quetta shot and killed a Shiite Muslim prayer leader.

And on May 31st, two gunmen riding motorcycles ambushed a car carrying Ghulam Nabi, a prominent local Shiite, wounding him and killing his son.