Rebels clash in southwest Pakistan

At least 36 people were killed in clashes between security forces and militants in a part of southwest Pakistan where nationalist rebels have fought a low-level insurgency for years, paramilitary officials said on Monday.

Officials said 28 militants and six troops have been killed since fighting broke out late on Saturday in the Dera Bugti area of Baluchistan after a gas pipeline was blown up.

Two civilians were killed on Monday when remote-controlled bombs hit two paramilitary vehicles in two separate attacks on paramilitary vehicles in Dera Bugti.

"The operation is continuing against militants involved in attacking gas installations in the Uch area ... We have destroyed two militant camps," a paramilitary official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

A Pakistani newspaper, The News, had reported a higher death toll of 43 from the fighting over the weekend.

Five civilians and six soldiers were wounded in Monday's bomb attacks in Dera Bugti.

Ethnic Baluch fighters have fought for decades to press demands for more political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's natural resources, notably oil and gas.

Baluch nationalists accuse Punjab, Pakistan's most populated province, of exploiting their natural resources. Militants have targeted government installations, security forces, gas pipelines, railway tracks and electricity pylons.

President Pervez Musharraf, who quit as army chief late last year, ordered a military crackdown in Baluchistan in late 2005 after being targeted by a rocket attack while visiting the province and hundreds of people have been killed since.

Attacks on government officials and infrastructure were more frequent in early 2006 but scaled down considerably after Pakistani forces killed one of the rebels' main leaders, Nawab Akbar Bugti, in late 2006.

A new provincial government in Baluchistan, formed after a defeat of Musharraf's allies in the February 18 elections, has said they will seek a negotiated end to the violence.