Seven people were killed and 12 others injured on Thursday when two suicide bombers blew themselves up near a security check post close to the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta.

The blasts occurred at the checkpost of Kuch More area within Quetta cantonment, 12 km from the capital of Balochistan province.

Apart from the two suicide attackers, three military personnel and four civilians died in the blasts.

"This is the first time there was a suicide attack in this part of the city," said military spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad.

The injured were taken to a nearby military hospital. All roads leading to the cantonment were closed as investigators cordoned off the site of the blasts to search for evidence.

The Pakistani armed forces have been targeted in a series of suicide attacks this year. The attacks have intensified since the army carried out a major operation to flush out militants who were holed up in the Lal Masjid in Islamabad in July.

Recent suicide bombings have targeted security checkposts and other facilities in North West Frontier Province, where the army is battling militant followers of pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah, as well as high-security military installations in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

On December 10, five children were injured when a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into a military truck carrying students to school near an air force base in Punjab province.