MIRANSHAH, Pakistan — A suicide bomber Tuesday rammed a car bomb into a checkpoint in Pakistan's restive tribal belt on the Afghan border, wounding three paramilitary soldiers, officials said.
The attack took place on the outskirts of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal district.
"Three paramilitary soldiers were injured after a suicide bomber struck his car into the checkpost," a security official told AFP.
A local administration official confirmed the incident, saying that security forces had cordoned off the area after the attack.
Hundreds of Islamist fighters are believed to have fled Afghanistan into Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas to carve out safe havens after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in Kabul in late 2001.
Militants bitterly opposed to Pakistan's alliance with the United States, whose troops are fighting an escalating Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, carry out daily attacks on security forces in the northwest.
The Pakistani army launched an offensive to dislodge Taliban guerrillas from northeastern districts Buner, Lower Dir and Swat after rebels flouted a peace deal and thrust further south towards the capital Islamabad in April.
The military said Tuesday that two "terrorists" were killed and 25 others arrested during "search and clearance" operations in Swat, northwest town Lakki and Darra Adam Khel, which is part of the lawless tribal belt.
The Swat offensive was welcomed by the United States and enjoys broad support among Pakistanis exasperated by worsening militant attacks, which have killed nearly 2,000 people in the nuclear-armed country since July 2007.
Pakistan says more than 1,800 militants and 166 security personnel have been killed since April but the death tolls are impossible to verify independently.
Although Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said this month that the military had "eliminated" extremists, continued deadly skirmishes have raised fears that the Taliban merely escaped into the mountains and regrouped.
The bullet-ridden body of a policeman was found Tuesday dumped on roadside in Sangota village, on the outskirts of Mingora, the main town in Swat.
"Militants abducted the policeman from Tahirabad area of Mingora three days ago," Swat police chief Sajjid Mohmand told AFP.
Thousands of Taliban loyalists first rose up in Swat two years ago, launching a brutal campaign that beheaded opponents, burned scores of schools and fought against government troops from November 2007. link....
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