Peshawar, Mar 3: At least 15 people, including 10 security personnel, were killed and 33 others injured today when terrorists, one of them a suicide car bomber, targeted security convoys in two separate attacks in Pakistan's restive northwest.
In the first attack, a suicide bomber, who was in an explosives-laden pick-up truck, blew himself up as a police van passed by, officials said.
Four policemen, who were in the van, were killed, district administration chief Adil Siddiq told the media.
Other officials said five civilians were also killed in the blast. Twelve women and children were among the 30 injured.
Siddiq described the condition of three of the injured as serious. All the injured had been rushed to a nearby state-run hospital after the blast.
The blast, in which police officials said 600 kg of explosives were used, also hit several nearby vehicles and 15 houses.
The explosion, for which no group claimed responsibility, left behind a 12-foot-wide crater.
In the second attack, at least six security personnel were killed and three others injured when pro-Taliban militants ambushed their convoy in the troubled Khyber tribal region of northwest Pakistan, officials said.
The convoy of the Khasadar militia was going from Bara to Dogra fort when it was attacked by militants in Zulfiqar Garhi area.
Four security personnel were killed instantly while two others died later, the officials said.
The three injured were taken to nearby hospitals.
Security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to trace the attackers.
No group claimed responsibility for this attack as well.
Several militant groups, including the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam, are active in the region. PTI
