The Pakistani Taliban is claiming responsibility for a terrorist attack that killed 13 people, including 11 members of a newly-created elite police unit in the southwestern city of Quetta.

The killers packed a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw with explosives and blew it up as a truck carrying the security men passed by. 

“We proudly claim responsibility for Thursday's blast in Quetta and the target was local police.  The Balochistan police recently arrested and killed some of our colleagues belonging to the Swat Taliban,” said Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan.

Quetta is the capital of the province of Balochistan, near the borders with Afghanistan and Iran.  The province is one of the most deprived parts of Pakistan, suffering from an extraordinarily high level of violence from the Taliban, a separatist insurgency, and sectarian unrest.