QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- A government official says a suicide bomber has killed 14 people in an attack on security forces in southwest Pakistan.

Wednesday's blast took place in the city of Quetta, a militant hotspot close to the Afghan border.

Police officer Hamid Shakil says the target was a group of Frontier Corps soldiers standing outside a government building in the city. City commissioner Quetta Nasim Lehri says there were soldiers among the 14 people killed.

Islamist militants are waging war against the Western-allied Pakistani state. Several thousand people have been killed since 2007.