Roadside bomb kills three soldiers in NW Pakistan

“Three paramilitary soldiers were killed when they walked over an IED (Impoverished explosive device) planted on a road side in Damadola area of Bajour tribal district (around 125 miles northwest of Peshawar),” local official Suhail Khan told AFP.

He said the paramilitary soldiers were returning back to their camp after a routine patrol when they stumbled over the explosive device.

Abdul Haseeb Khan, another senior official, also confirmed the incident.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but the Pakistani Taliban, and its splinter factions, have regularly targeted security forces in the northwest.

On Tuesday, a team of Taliban gunmen stormed the Army Public School in the northwestern city of Peshawar, slaughtering 148 people, including 132 children, in the country’s deadliest ever terror attack.

The TTP said the assault was revenge for the killing of its fighters and their families in an ongoing military operation against its hideouts in the North Waziristan tribal area, and warned more attacks would follow.

Pakistan has been battling Islamist groups in its semi-autonomous tribal belt since 2004, after its army entered the region to search for Al-Qaeda fighters who had fled across the border following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.