Suicide bombing kills 4 soldiers in North Pakistan

A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a military checkpoint in the troubled tribal region of North Waziristan, northwest Pakistan, on Wednesday, killing at least four soldiers and wounding 25 others. The attack took place in the Mir Ali area of Miranshah, the main town in the region bordering Afghanistan. A local security official told reporters that "four security officials embraced shahadat (martyrdom) and 25 were wounded when a suicide bomber hit his explosive-laden car into the mosque of Khajori checkpoint, some three kilometers east of Miranshah." The soldiers were offering prayers at the time of the blast, the official said. The wounded soldiers were rushed to the military hospital and security forces carried a search operation. The blast came just a day after the Cabinet's Committee on National Security reaffirmed the government's commitment to the strategy of carrying out negotiations with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and considering use of other options only as a last resort. The northern tribal areas of Pakistan have been facing militants' insurgency from the last many years and militants targeted government installations and security men quite frequently. Pakistani security forces have carried many successful operations against the militants to ensure peace in the area. Earlier, the Pakistan government offered peace talks to Taliban but the process was halted after a drone strike killed the TTP commander, Hakeem Ullah Mehsud.