Roadside Bomb Kills Two on Pakistan-Afghanistan Border

Posted July 5th, 2011 at 5:25 am (UTC-5)
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A roadside bomb has killed at least two Pakistani soldiers and wounded as many as 15 others along the country's troubled border with Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials say unknown militants set off the bomb near an army vehicle early Tuesday in the North Waziristan region.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. North Waziristan is known to be a refuge for Afghan and Pakistani Taliban fighters.

The roadside bombing is the latest in a series of attacks near the Afghan-Pakistani border that have raised tensions between the two countries.

Pakistani officials said Monday that dozens of Taliban militants entered northwest Pakistan from Afghanistan and attacked a military checkpoint. One soldier and at least two militants were killed in the attack before Pakistani forces drove the militants back into Afghanistan.

Afghan officials say the Pakistani military has been routinely shelling villages in Afghanistan's remote mountainous border region. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has complained to NATO and Pakistan that more than 470 Pakistani rockets hit Afghanistan recently, killing many civilians.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani army says it is continuing its air and ground offensive in the Kurram tribal region bordering Afghanistan in an attempt to clear the area of militants and reopen a road connecting the upper and lower parts of the district.