PESHAWAR, June 2: At least five soldiers and two suicide bombers were killed and seven soldiers were wounded when a car laden with explosives rammed into a military vehicle in the Bakakhel area of Bannu Frontier region on Friday, officials said.
“Two suicide bombers banged their car into a military vehicle and destroyed it,” a security official said.
An official of the Inter-Services Public Relations, however, claimed that it was not a suicide attack and said two miscreants threw grenades on security forces, killing four soldiers and wounding 10 others.
One of the wounded soldiers expired later in the Combined Military Hospital here.
“The attackers threw grenades on the vehicle from their car when the army convoy stopped for a tea break in Bakakhel area,” the official said.
Troops retaliated and shot dead two attackers when they tried to escape in their car, he claimed.
“Had this been a suicide attack, it would have involved one bomber. Two suicide bombers involved in an attack doesn’t make any sense,” the official insisted.
This is the second suicide bombing in and around Waziristan in about a week.
A suicide bomber had attacked a paramilitary checkpoint in Datakhel area in North Waziristan on Sunday, killing two soldiers. The attacker was local, sources said.
Afghan officials have been claiming the existence of at least two camps in Waziristan to train suicide bombers.
But a security official said all that was required for a suicide bomber was to be indoctrinated.
“They might as well do it in a room,” the official said. “You don’t need training camps for that.”
He said that potential suicide bombers were given three months of rigorous indoctrination and not allowed contact with the outside world.
“All that he has to do later is push a button, they need to be trained for that,” the official said.
Official sources and residents said two people rammed their car into a military vehicle on Bannu-Mirali road at about 10.30am.
The army convoy was proceeding from Mirali in North Waziristan to its base camp in Bannu district when soldiers in two military vehicles stopped over for tea.
“A car coming from the opposite direction smashed into the army vehicle and exploded,” the residents said. The car and the two military vehicles were badly damaged, they said.
The sources said that security forces collected two heads from the car’s debris and it was believed that both were locals. The bodies and wounded soldiers were taken to the Combined Military Hospital in Bannu.
Some of the seriously wounded were later brought to the military hospital in the provincial capital, where the condition of one soldier with head injury is stated to be critical.
The soldiers who died in the attack include: Mansoor Rehman, Amir Azam, Khalilur Rehman and Kausar Niaz. The wounded soldiers are: Allah Bakhash, Tanveer, Asif, Inayatullah, Khalid, Riyaz, Saeed, Mohammad Ali, Aazam and Hidayatullah. The name of the soldier who expired in hospital could not be ascertained.
After the explosion, Cobra and military transport helicopters started extensive movement in FR Bannu, but did not fire.
The sources said troops had sealed off the Bannu cantonment and restricted entry of civilians into the locality.
The security official said it was not known which group was behind the attack.
Our correspondent in Miramshah adds: Militants blew up a picket of Khasadar force near cemetery checkpoint in the North Waziristan on Friday night, sources said.
A paramilitary soldier was injured when he stepped on an explosive device on Razmak-Aesha road.
Two people were killed and a woman wounded when two rockets were fired at the house of one Noor Gul near Miramshah.
