By DPA,
Islamabad : A roadside bomb killed two soldiers in Pakistan’s Khyber tribal district Sunday, officials said.
The remote-controlled blast struck a convoy of the Frontier Corps paramilitary force as it passed through the Bara area close to the Afghan border.
Four soldiers were wounded in the explosion, which damaged a couple of vehicles, according to an official in the local administration who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Troops launched a major offensive in Bara Sep 1, largely focusing on insurgents linked with Lashkar-e-Islam militant group, which is blamed for attacks on trucks carrying supplies for Western forces in Afghanistan, besides drug smuggling and kidnappings.
The military said at least 157 militants, including a few commanders, have been killed in the offensive but there is no independent confirmation of the casualty count.
Nearly two dozen hideouts and scores of houses used by the rebels were destroyed during the last two weeks, the military said.
Lashkar-e-Islam chief Mangal Bagh warned of revenge attacks and asked the tribal police, known as Khasadar force, to quit their jobs.
Khyber’s top administrator Tariq Hayat Khan told BBC Urdu news service Saturday that 300 policemen did not report for duty at the weekend.
Khan, however, said the situation would not make an impact on the operation. The government has doubled the number of soldiers deployed in the district.
Elsewhere, security forces Sunday destroyed a car bomb near a check post in the neighbouring North West Frontier Province, killing the suicide attacker. The abortive attack in the restive Malakand region left three people injured, a military spokesman said.