Peshawar: A suicide bomber hit a vehicle carrying Pakistani paramilitary force members on Monday, killing two soldiers, including an officer, and wounding seven, a police official said. The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the attack.
Police superintendent Imran Malik said the attack happened in Peshawar, on the edge of the Khyber tribal area that borders Afghanistan. The attacker was riding a motorcycle, he added.
Pakistan's Tehrik-e-Taliban, an umbrella for Pakistani Taliban factions, was behind the attack, according to a statement by the militants' spokesman, Mohammad Khurasani, distributed to the media.
The attack came a day after the Pakistan army announced it had launched an operation in the Khyber tribal region to rout Islamic State militants it said were operating in the area. The Islamic State in Khorasan as it is known in Afghanistan and Pakistan is based in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province which abuts Pakistan and the Khyber tribal region.
The local Islamic State affiliate emerged a few years ago, mainly from disenchanted Taliban fighters espousing the IS' ideology.
The paramilitary force, known as the Frontier Corps, is the front-line force battling militants in Pakistan's tribal regions stretching hundreds of kilometers (miles) along its border with Afghanistan.
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