A suicide bomber killed at least four people and wounded dozens on Tuesday in northwest Pakistan, where security forces are battling militants, officials said.
Each of two allied militant groups, the Pakistani Taliban and Lashkar-e-Islam, claimed responsibility for the attack in the Khyber region near the Afghan border, where the military has been battling them since last October, Reuters reported.
The attack targeted a paramilitary vehicle outside a government compound in the Jamrud area of the region, official Shaukatullah Afridi, who was meters away from the blast, told Reuters.
“I had just entered the office and sat on my chair when I heard a huge blast. It seemed as if the whole building had collapsed.”
Afridi’s office is on the road leading from the city of Peshawar, through the Khyber Pass, to the Afghan border.
At least 42 wounded people were taken to hospital in Peshawar, about 20 kilometers to the east, hospital doctor Noor Wazir said, adding the death toll could drastically rise.
The Pakistani Taliban is allied with the Afghan Taliban and fighting Pakistani government forces in the hope of establishing their own set of extremist rules.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Mohammad Khorasani said the attack was revenge for government operations against them.
Lashkar-e-Islam spokesman Salahuddin Ayubi also claimed that his group had carried out the attack.
Hundreds of militants have been killed in ground fighting and airstrikes, the military says. Some soldiers have also been killed.
