A suicide bomber killed five people and wounded 40 in an attack on a security forces' convoy in Pakistan's Swat valley today, officials and witnesses said.
The bombing struck the Mingora town after a relative lull in the valley, where the military launched a major offensive last year. The army says the valley has largely been cleared of militants, though some have been able to strike at times.
"Five people have been killed in the suicide attack which apparently targeted a security forces' convoy," according senior government official, Imran Qureshi.
Eight vehicles, including two of the security forces, were damaged and a woman passer-by was among the dead in the attack near the town's main bus stop. There were no casualties among the security forces, police said.
Intelligence officials put the death toll at seven and said the attacker appeared to have been on foot, an account supported by a witness.
"The man was sitting in my bus and got down as soon as I pulled over and ran towards security forces' vehicles and then there was a big explosion," said Siddique Jan, the driver of the bus.
The latest attack will fuel fear of a Taliban comeback in Swat and will also hurt government efforts to lure visitors back to the valley, once a famous tourist resort.
After scoring significant gains in Swat in October the military launched another major offensive on South Waziristan, a militant bastion on the Afghan border.
The offensive was extended to Orakzai in March as many of the militants who fled the South Waziristan operation took refuge there. Hundreds of militants have since been killed in airstrikes in Orakzai.
In the latest strike, jet fighters killed 20 militants and destroyed six of their hideouts in Orakzai today. There was no independent verification of casualties and militants often dispute the military's accounts.
But despite losing ground in military offensive, the Pakistani Taliban, who are allies of the Afghan Taliban, have shown the ability to hit back and carry out a wave of bomb and suicide attacks across Pakistan in recent months.
An attack in northwestern Mohmand tribal region killed 107 people last week.
In a separate incident, militants set off explosives at a mosque and an adjacent Muslim shrine in Landi Kotal, the main town of the northwestern tribal region of Khyber, causing some damage to their structures but there were no casualties, police said.
Reuters