MIRANSHAH: At least four soldiers were killed and 25 wounded when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a military checkpoint in Pakistan’s troubled northwest yesterday, security officials said.
The attack came in the Mir Ali area of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region, a hub for Taliban and Al Qaeda linked militants on the Afghan border.
“Four security officials embraced shahadat (martyrdom) and 25 were wounded when a suicide bomber hit his explosive-laden car into the mosque of Khajori checkpoint, some three kilometres east of Miranshah,” a security official said.
“The soldiers were offering prayers at the time of the blast,” the official said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The umbrella Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan faction and Al Qaeda linked militants have led a bloody campaign against the Pakistani state in recent years, carrying out hundreds of attacks on security forces and government targets, concentrated largely in the northwest.
Law enforcement in Pakistan is carried out by several federal and provincial police agencies.The armed forces of Pakistan are the eighth largest in the world in terms of numbers in full-time service. AFP
