MIRANSHAH  - A roadside bomb targeting a military convoy Wednesday killed two soldiers and wounded 14 others in North Waziristan Agency.
The bomb was planted along the route of a convoy of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Spinwam area about 40 kilometres north of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan, officials said. “It was a remote-controlled device and the target was a military convoy,” a security official in Miranshah said.
One vehicle in the 20-truck convoy was hit in the blast, which killed one soldier on the spot, while another later succumbed to injuries in hospital, he said.
There are 14 other injured soldiers receiving treatment in the hospital, some in a serious condition, he added. Troops responded by launching a house-to-house search for militants while military helicopters shelled suspected hideouts, another official in Peshawar said, confirming the death toll. “We don’t have details of militant losses,” he said.
Attacks on the military are rare in the region as an influential local militant commander, Gul Bahadur, agreed not to attack troops under a ceasefire accord signed with the authorities in 2007. Pakistan has lost more than 3,000 soldiers in the fight against homegrown insurgents but has resisted US pressure to eliminate havens used by those fighting international troops in Afghanistan.