A powerful roadside bomb blast has struck a convoy of security personnel in troubled northwestern Pakistan, killing at least three soldiers, security sources say.
Local Pakistani security officials said on Saturday that the casualties were caused after an improvised explosive device (IED) targeted a military vehicle in the Datakhel district of North Waziristan tribal region.
The troops were on a routine patrol of the militancy-riddled region when they came under the attack, they added.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly explosion. However, Pakistani officials usually blame such assaults on pro-Taliban militants.
Waziristan, which is said to be a stronghold of pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked groups, has experienced a fresh spate of violence and militancy over the past few months.
The Pakistani army started an operation against militant hideouts in North Waziristan last June after a deadly raid on the Karachi International Airport ended the government’s faltering peace talks with the pro-Taliban militants.
Pakistan intensified its anti-terror campaign following a December 16, 2014 attack on an army-run school in the city of Peshawar, which claimed the lives of about 150 people.
The military says it has killed more than 1,200 militants since launching the operation.
Even before the Pakistani military operation, however, the semi-autonomous tribal regions on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan were a hideout of militant groups. The militants use the mountainous border area to launch attacks in both countries.
Violence has been increasing in Pakistan’s northwest tribal belt following the 2001 US-led invasion of neighboring Afghanistan.
Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001, when Pakistan entered an alliance with the US in the so-called war on terror. Thousands more have been displaced by the wave of violence and militancy sweeping across the country.
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