Nine Soldiers Killed in IED Attack

File Photo. Asif Hassan—AFP

Roadside bomb exploded in Ghulamkhan village of North Waziristan.

A roadside bomb killed at least nine soldiers and wounded several others in North Waziristan on Thursday, the military said.

The bomb exploded as a military convoy passed in the village of Ghulamkhan. “At least eight security forces personnel embraced martyrdom in an IED blast which had been planted by terrorists on Miranshah-Ghulamkhan road,” the military said in an earlier statement. “Several security forces personnel are critically injured.” The ISPR later amended the number of deceased to nine personnel.

Local military officials confirmed the incident and said troops called in air support and launched a search operation in the area after the attack.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but the area is a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban.

The attack comes two weeks after the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) formally ended a ceasefire called to help peace talks with the government.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government began negotiations with the TTP through intermediaries in February in the hope of ending their bloody seven-year insurgency. Since the TTP rose up against the Pakistani state in 2007, more than 6,800 people have been killed in bomb and gun attacks around Pakistan, according to an AFP tally.