Pakistan unrest: Quetta troops hit by suicide attacks

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The BBC's Aleem Maqbool says the attacks came just days after a number of al-Qaeda operatives were arrested

Suicide bombers have attacked the residence of a military official in the Pakistani city of Quetta, killing at least 20 people.

The first attacker detonated a car bomb, and a second militant blew himself up in the house of the city's Frontier Corps chief.
Some of the dead were members of the corps - a paramilitary force battling militants on the Afghan border.
No group has said it carried out the attack.
The Frontier Corps had taken part in an operation to catch an al-Qaeda militant earlier this week, according to the army.
Militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, as well as ethnic Baloch militants, are active in the area.
Police official Hamid Shakil told AFP news agency that the attackers had killed at least four members of the Frontier Corps.
The corps chief's wife and two of his children were also killed.
Thaw in relations "It was a twin suicide attack. The house was badly damaged. The deputy inspector general himself is injured," he said.
At least 44 people were injured in the explosions, he said and it is expected that the number of dead will rise.

The military official's wife and children were said to be among the dead

Correspondents say that the residence of the deputy inspector general is close to government buildings and official residencies in Quetta, the main town of Balochistan.
On Monday the army announced that the Frontier Corps had arrested Younis al-Mauritani, blamed for planning and executing international operations for al-Qaeda.
He was detained in the suburbs of Quetta along with two other high-ranking operatives after US and Pakistani spy agencies joined forces, according to the Pakistan army.
Correspondents say that the arrests were another blow to the global terror network, four months after Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by covert US forces.
While his death led to a souring of ties between allies Islamabad and Washington there may now be a thaw in relations, correspondents say.
The army has hailed co-operation between the CIA and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency in the arrests, news of which came just days before the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The US also praised the operation with a White House spokesman describing it as an example of partnership between the two countries "which has taken many terrorists off the battlefield over the past decade".