8 Police Killed in Pakistan's Quetta in a Week

Quetta, Pakistan: Gunmen shot dead four police in Pakistan's western city of Quettaon today, officials said, in the deadliest week for the force in the city for nearly two years.

Four police were also killed in the same Pashtoonabad area of Quetta on Saturday.

"It was first time that eight police men have been killed by armed men in just one week," said Quetta police chief Abdul Razzak Cheema. "One of the police got down from the police pickup and tried to retaliate, but was killed on the spot."

The nuclear-armed nation of 190 million people is battling a Taliban insurgency, rising sectarian violence and violent criminal gangs. The poorly equipped and trained police are frequent targets.

Also today, in the northwest city of Peshawar, a Taliban suicide bomber killed two police and seriously wounded six when he crashed his explosive-laden motorcycle into a police motorcade.

Four senior police have also been killed this month in the southern port city of Karachi.