AFP MIRANSHAH A BOMB ripped through a military vehicle on Saturday killing two Pakistani soldiers in a village in the restive northwestern tribal area bordering Afghanistan, a security official said. The remote-controlled bomb planted on a roadside hit a patrol party leading a convoy of security forces at Boya village, some 20 kilometres west of Miranshah, the main town of troubled North Waziristan tribal district.

“Two soldiers were martyred in the bomb blast,” a security official told AFP.

“The authorities have clamped a curfew on the main Miranshah-Datta Khel road and are carrying out a search operation,” said the official, who requested anonymity.

A local intelligence official confirmed the attack and death toll and said that he suspected the involvement of Taliban militants.

Pakistan has for years battled homegrown insurgents in the tribal belt that borders Afghanistan. More than 3,000 soldiers have died but Pakistan has resisted US pressure to do more to eliminate havens used by Afghan insurgents.

In a separate attack, a crude bomb killed two tribesmen and wounded four others outside the house of a tribal elder in the town of Landi Kotal in Khyber tribal district, local government official Mutahir Zeb told AFP.

The tribal elder Salamat Khan was safe as the blast damaged the main gate and a car parked outside, he added.

Some 18,000 people fled their homes in Khyber in October amid fears of a fresh onslaught of fighting between the army and Islamist militants tied to the Pakistani Taliban.

Pakistan’s seven tribal districts near the Afghan border are rife with homegrown insurgents and are strongholds of Taliban and Al- Qaeda operatives.

In Orakzai, another tribal district, Pakistan military’s helicopter gunships Saturday pounded the hide outs of Taliban militants killing 12 rebels, security officials said.

The toll could not be verified independently as the area is under military operations.

Orakzai is a former bastion of Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.