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A suicide bomber drove an explosive-laden vehicle into a military convoy in Pakistan's restive North Waziristan district, killing 16 soldiers and wounding more than two dozen people, local officials said.
The attack occurred in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where a bomber targeted the military convoy with a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, according to a local government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident publicly.
The blast's impact extended beyond the military target, causing structural damage to nearby residential areas. "The explosion also caused the roofs of two houses to collapse, injuring six children," a police officer stationed in the district told AFP.
The suicide bomber wing of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur armed group, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. The official death toll was revised upward from an initial count of 13 fatalities.
The incident comes as security situation deteriorates in Pakistan's border regions with Afghanistan. Violence has surged dramatically since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in August 2021, with Pakistani officials accusing Kabul of allowing its territory to serve as a staging ground for cross-border attacks. The Afghan Taliban government has denied these allegations.
The attack adds to a mounting casualty toll from militant violence in Pakistan's northwestern and southwestern provinces. According to an AFP tally, approximately 290 people have been killed in attacks by armed groups opposing the government since the beginning of 2025, with security officials comprising the majority of victims across both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
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