Bomb kills soldiers in Pakistan

31/10/2009| IslamWeb

At least seven Pakistani soldiers have been killed in a roadside bomb blast in a tribal region of northwest Pakistan, officials say.

The vehicle was travelling in Pakistan's Khyber region on Saturday when it was struck about 15km west of the city of Peshawar.

"Seven paramilitary soldiers were killed and 11 were wounded in the remote-control bomb attack," Shafirullah Khan, the chief administrative official of Khyber tribal district, told the AFP news agency.

Khyber is on the main supply route through Pakistan to Afghanistan.

The bomb blast came as Pakistan's military continued its offensive against Taliban fighters in South Waziristan, in the country's northwest.

Ongoing offensive

Pakistani fighter jets bombed three suspected Taliban positions in the Orkazai tribal region on Saturday, the Associated Press news agency reported.

At least eight fighters were killed and several others wounded, the news agency cited intelligence officials as saying.

PHOTO CAPTION

Map of northwest Pakistan showing the location of a bomb attack about 15 kilometers (nine miles) west of Peshawar which left seven Pakistani soldiers dead and wounded 11 others.

Al-Jazeera