MIRAMSHAH, Aug 24: Cobra helicopters attacked suspected locations of militants in North Waziristan’s Qutabkhel area on Friday after two suicide attacks had been carried out on a military convoy, killing six soldiers and injuring 37 others, an army spokesman said.

Earlier, according to officials, a bomb explosion injured three security men near a checkpost in an area near here.

Four Cobra helicopters were seen attacking the locations in Qutabkhel, about two kilometres southeast of Miramshah.

The entire area reverberated with explosions. Residential compounds also came under attack, local people said.

Inter Services Public Relations director-general Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad said 10 to 15 militants had been killed in the shelling on their hideouts.

He confirmed that six security personnel had been killed and 40 others injured in three attacks on security forces.

Security forces have been suffering heavy casualties in North Waziristan since July 15 when militants scrapped the peace deal with the government. Unofficial sources said 50 soldiers had been killed and over 110 injured in attacks on security posts since then. And according to Gen Arshad, the security forces had killed over 250 militants in the troubled region.

“Militants are under pressure and they are losing tribesmen’s sympathies,” he told Dawn by telephone from Islamabad.

On Friday, local officials said a military convoy of some 40 vehicles was going from Bannu to Razmak in North Waziristan when an explosive-packed car, coming from the opposite direction, rammed into one of the vehicles near Kamar Kot, about three kilometres east of the Mirali town.

The man who was driving the car and five soldiers were killed and 22 others injured. The security forces cordoned off the area.

Hours later, another suicide bomber drove his car into the same military convoy near the Asadkhel village at about 12pm, killing one soldier and injuring two others.

The soldiers injured in Banda blast were carrying water from a spring when the explosion took place.

Our correspondent from Khar adds: Two people were injured in two explosions in the Loysam area of Bajaur Agency on Friday, residents said.

They said a landmine had been planted in an under-construction house of a tribesman. They said the landmine exploded when a worker stepped on it. The worker was injured.

In the meantime, an explosive device went off at the main gate of the compound, injuring another worker.

The injured were taken to the agency headquarters hospital in Khar.