ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities say police acting on intelligence killed 14 al-Qaida members and other militants in two separate shootouts in central Pakistan.

A statement issued by the Counter Terrorism Department said Friday that eight al-Qaida operatives and other militants were killed near the city of Multan, in Punjab province, on Wednesday. Several of their accomplices managed to flee but were traced to the district of Dera Ghazi Khan, where six were killed in a firefight with security forces the following day.

Also Friday, police official Shakir Ullah says three suspected suicide bombers were killed when one of the insurgents accidentally detonated his suicide jacket while approaching the northwestern city of Peshawar on a motorcycle from the Khyber trial region bordering Afghanistan.