Suicide bomber targets army convoy in northwest Pakistan

At least nine soldiers have been killed and five wounded in a suicide attack on a security convoy in northwest Pakistan.

The military said security forces had cordoned off the area.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on Thursday in the northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Bannu district.

A “motorcycle borne suicide bomber exploded himself” about 61km (37 miles) from the border with Afghanistan, the army’s media wing said.

The rugged border region has long been a hive of militant activity.

“The suicide bomber was riding a motorcycle and he rammed his bike into a truck in a military convoy,” provincial minister Feroze Jamal Shah told AFP news agency.

Pakistan’s restive northwest, which borders Afghanistan, has seen a rise in attacks over the last year since talks between armed fighters and the government broke down.

Another suicide bombing at a political gathering in the northwest last month killed more than 60 people.

In January, a suicide bomber linked with Tehreek–e–Taliban Pakistan (TTP) blew himself up in a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing more than 80 officers.