Premature Blast Kills Suicide Bomber in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan-- Police say a suicide bomber targeting the country's Shiite minority has killed himself in a premature explosion in southwestern Pakistan.

Hamid Shakeel, deputy inspector general in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, says the Saturday incident took place on the outskirts of the city.

He says a man in his twenties was heading toward a Shiite mosque when his explosive-rigged suicide vest went off prematurely, a little short of his apparent target.

In recent years, al-Qaida-linked Sunni militant groups have targeted the country's Shiite minority in suicide bombings and in shootings. Baluchistan has recently been a center of this violence, with at least four major attacks against Shiites since May.