By DPA
Islamabad : At least 18 soldiers were killed and 28 wounded when a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a military convoy in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region Saturday, the military said.
“The attack targeted a convoy transporting troops of the Pakistan Army and the Frontier Corps (paramilitary force) at around 11.20 a.m. (0620 GMT),” the military’s chief spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told DPA.
The soldiers were travelling from the town of Razmak to Miranshah, the administrative capital of the North Waziristan semi-autonomous tribal district that borders Afghanistan.
Two vehicles in the convoy were completely destroyed in the bombing.
Arshad said the casualties were airlifted to nearby towns for medical treatment.
According to Arshad, security at military installations and during troop movements has been intensified in the wake of this week’s military operation against insurgents at Islamabad’s Red Mosque that according to the government killed 102 people.
Attacks on the security forces and administrators have increased in the tribal areas and Pakistan’s restive North-West Frontier Province where extremists have called for revenge attacks in the wake of the bloodshed.
In his will, which was published by local media, the Lal Masjid’s slain deputy chief cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi said: “We have a firm belief in God that our blood will lead to a revolution in the country.”