Suicide blast kills at least 8 in northwest Pakistan

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani officials reported Saturday that a suicide bomber targeted a security checkpoint in a volatile region near the border with Afghanistan, killing at least eight people and injuring several others.

The attack occurred in the town of Mir Ali in Pakistan’s militancy-hit North Waziristan district. At least two soldiers, four police officers and two civilians were said to be among the dead.

Multiple area security officials confirmed the casualties, reporting that the bomber detonated a motorbike rickshaw filled with explosives at the checkpoint.

The explosion also injured five security personnel, with local hospital sources describing the condition of some of them as “critical.”

Militants allied with the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, reportedly claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing. It came a day after fierce clashes with militants in districts surrounding North Waziristan killed at least 16 Pakistani security force members and injured many others.

Pakistani officials have reported a dramatic surge in TTP-led gun attacks and suicide bombings in the country, particularly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa border province, where North Waziristan is located.

The violence has claimed the lives of more than 1,000 Pakistanis, half of them security forces, in the first 10 months of this year, according to independent research reports.

Islamabad says TTP operates out of sanctuaries in Afghanistan and has intensified cross-border attacks since the Islamist Taliban regained power in the neighboring country.

The Taliban government in Kabul has persistently denied allegations that the TTP or any other transnational militant groups are present on Afghan soil.

TTP, commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban, is listed as a global terrorist organization by the United Nations and the United States.

The group sheltered leaders of the Afghan Taliban in Pakistani border areas and joined them in staging years of insurgent attacks on U.S.-led international forces in Afghanistan until those departed in August 2021.