ISIS Claims Responsibility for Bombing that Killed 2 Police Officers in Pakistan

The wreckage of a police vehicle destroyed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Kuchlak, near Quetta, provincial capital of Balochistan, Pakistan, 14 September 2024. EPA/FAYYAZ AHMAD
The wreckage of a police vehicle destroyed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Kuchlak, near Quetta, provincial capital of Balochistan, Pakistan, 14 September 2024. EPA/FAYYAZ AHMAD
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ISIS Claims Responsibility for Bombing that Killed 2 Police Officers in Pakistan

The wreckage of a police vehicle destroyed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Kuchlak, near Quetta, provincial capital of Balochistan, Pakistan, 14 September 2024. EPA/FAYYAZ AHMAD
The wreckage of a police vehicle destroyed by an improvised explosive device (IED) in Kuchlak, near Quetta, provincial capital of Balochistan, Pakistan, 14 September 2024. EPA/FAYYAZ AHMAD

ISIS claimed responsibility for the weekend bombing that killed two police officials in restive southwestern Pakistan, officials said Monday.

Analysts say the latest violence is a sign of increasing coordination between militants and separatists who for years have been targeting security forces and civilians in the oil- and gas-rich Balochistan province bordering Iran and Afghanistan.

ISIS said in a statement on Sunday that it detonated an explosive device a day earlier targeting a Pakistani police vehicle in Kuchlak town near Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. Pakistani officials say the attack killed two officers and wounded two others on a highway.

The Balochistan Liberation Army has previously claimed such attacks, but ISIS has carried out similar attacks in recent months.
BLA last month killed dozens of people in gun and suicide attacks on passenger buses, police stations and military facilities.



Iran Releases Jailed Austrian Citizen

People walk on a market street in Tehran on September 15, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People walk on a market street in Tehran on September 15, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
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Iran Releases Jailed Austrian Citizen

People walk on a market street in Tehran on September 15, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)
People walk on a market street in Tehran on September 15, 2024. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP)

Iranian authorities have released Austrian citizen Christian Weber, detained for crimes committed in Iran's West Azerbaijan Province, to Austria's ambassador in Tehran, the Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency reported on Tuesday.

Austria had said in 2022 one of its citizens was arrested in Iran on charges not related to protests that broke out in the country after the death of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman, in custody.
The news agency said the Austrian citizen was freed in consideration of Islamic mercy. He was handed over to his country's ambassador to arrange his exit, the agency said.

Mizan did not specify the crime for which Weber was jailed.