QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) -Tribal rebels have fired more than 100 rockets into a town near a natural gas installation in southwest Pakistan overnight, killing two soldiers and four civilians.

The rebels targetted Sui town in Baluchistan province which has been in the grip of an insurgency by armed tribesmen loyal to chieftains at loggerheads with the central government over their economic and political demands.

“Miscreants fired 75 rockets in one attack on Saturday evening and 27 more hours later into the Sui town,” local administration official Abdul Samad Lasi told AFP.

“According to the latest information two soldiers and four civilians were killed in the rocket attack,” Lasi said, adding that some houses were damaged and electric supplies disrupted.

The rocket attack followed a raid by paramilitary troops who dismantled a rebel camp in the nearby town of Dera Bugti, recovering a huge quantity of arms and ammunition.

Lasi said there were no casualties as the rebels fled before the paramilitary raid early Saturday.

President Pervez Musharraf has asked rebellious chieftains including former Baluchistan governor Akbar Bugti to disarm to find a solution to the row in the mineral rich but sparsely-populated province.

The government launched a fresh crackdown in the province in December after rockets hit Kohlu during a visit by Musharraf, culminating in the showdown in Dera Bugti.