Bomb kills 2 Pakistani soldiers, wounds14 in N Waziristan: Officials

MIRANSHAH, PAKISTAN: A roadside bomb targeting a military convoy Wednesday killed two Pakistani soldiers and wounded 14 others in the country's lawless tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said.

The bomb was planted along the route of a convoy of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Spinwam area about 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan region, they said.

North Waziristan has become the most notorious Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. Islamabad has resisted US pressure to launch a full-scale offensive against insurgents in the area.

"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 the northwestern city of Peshawar said, confirming the casualties.

"We don't have details of militant losses," he said.

North Waziristan is one of seven districts in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt, where Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants have carved out strongholds used to plot attacks across the border in Afghanistan.

Attacks on the military are rare in the region as an influential local militant commander, Gul Bahadur, agreed not to attack Pakistani 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.