Car bombing kills four policemen in north-western Pakistan

A suicide car bombing Wednesday at a police checkpoint killed four officers in Pakistan's north-western city of Peshawar, security and health officials said.

Separately, at least two soldiers and seven militants died in clashes in the adjoining tribal region bordering Afghanistan, DPA reported.

Peshawar city police chief Liaquat Ali Khan said the bomber targeted in early hours of the day a checkpoint on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of the militancy-plagued Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province.

"They wanted to enter the city, but when the police stopped them for a search, they realized that they could not go any further and blew up the car there," Khan said.

"All four policemen who stopped the car died at the scene while six more security personnel are wounded," he added.

A health official at Peshawar's state-run Lady Reading Hospital said the bodies of four policemen and 13 injured people had been moved there.

"Among the injured are three civilians, including a woman, and 10 policemen," the official said.

The blast flattened the checkpoint building and damaged several nearby houses.

No one had claimed responsibility for the predawn attack, but Taliban and al-Qaeda militants have killed hundreds of people in suicide and other attacks on official and civilian targets in the area in recent months.

Peshawar borders the country's mountainous tribal region, where Islamist insurgents control large swathes of territory.

Thousands of Pakistani military and paramilitary troops are fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda in this lawless tribal region, which Washington describes as a hub of global terrorism and the most dangerous place on earth.

Also on Wednesday, dozens of militants armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades ambushed a security check post in tribal district of North Waziristan.

"Our troops repulsed the attack and killed their seven people while 14 more terrorists were injured," said a local intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Two of our soldiers were martyred while seven received injuries."

A purported spokesman of militants who identified himself as Muhammad Umar claimed responsibility of the attack.

"This is the last warning for the Pakistan Army. They should not any further ventures for killing civilians," Umar said without elaborating.

It was the second strike by Taliban fighters in one week that could jeopardize last September's peace agreement between the government and Hafiz Gul Bahadur, the militants leader in the district.

Bahadur is considered a pro-government warlord whose men spare Pakistani security personnel and focus on raids against NATO forces in Afghanistan, unlike Islamist insurgents in other Pakistani tribal districts.

Bahadur, believed to be in his late 40s, termed last week's attack on security convoy as "sad incident, ordering his followers to abstain from targeting government targets. That attack killed eight troops and injured 15 more.

It was not clear whether purported militant spokesman belonged to Bahadur's group or one of several other smaller militants organizations operating in the region.

The United States that has generally praised Pakistan for its efforts against Islamist militancy in tribal region have pressed Pakistan for an offensive in North Waziristan.

But Islamabad says it lacks the resources to expand military action when thousands of its troops are fighting the Taliban in other tribal districts and the adjoining Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.