Soldiers among four killed in northwest Pakistan suicide bombing

A suicide bomber has targeted a security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan, killing two soldiers, a policeman and a civilian, security officials said.

It was the second attack to hit Pakistan in as many days.

The bombing happened on Wednesday in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan and is a former stronghold of the Pakistan Taliban, also known as TTP.

A number of civilians were also wounded in the attack, according to Rehmat Khan, a local police official.

“It was a suicide attack and the bomber blew himself up during a road check,” Rasool Daraz, another local police officer, told dpa news agency.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistan Taliban.

In the last six months, the TTP has stepped up its attacks since it unilaterally ended a ceasefire with the Pakistani government, brokered by neighbouring Afghanistan last year.

Also on Wednesday, the TTP claimed responsibility for an attack the previous day on an oil and gas plant in Hangu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the border with Afghanistan.

Four security personnel and two private guards were killed in the attack on the facility run by a multinational European company, MOL Pakistan Oil and Gas.

Though a separate group, the TTP remains a close ally to the Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in August 2021 following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country after two decades of war.

The takeover some say has emboldened the TTP.

Pakistan’s military has stepped up operations in the region after a suicide bomber killed at least 84 people, mostly police, at a mosque inside the police headquarters in the city of Peshawar in January.

According to official data, the Pakistan Taliban has killed about 80,000 people in decades of violence.