Motorbike Bomb Kills Soldier in Northwest Pakistan

A bomb planted on a motorbike killed a soldier and wounded another in Pakistan's restive northwest on Friday, officials said.

The incident happened in Mithra area on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

"A remote controlled bomb planted on a motorbike went off as an army vehicle passed by it, killing one soldier and wounding another one," a senior security official told Agence France Presse.

A local police official also confirmed the incident and casualties.

Nobody has so far claimed responsibility of the attack but convoys of security forces routinely come under militant attacks in the northwest.

Peshawar is the gateway to Pakistani tribal badlands that are strongholds of Taliban and al-Qaida linked militants.

Pakistan has been battling Islamist groups in the northwest and its semi-autonomous tribal belt since 2004, after its army entered the tribal region to search for al-Qaida fighters who had fled across the border following the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

In June the army began a major offensive against militant hideouts in the North Waziristan tribal agency, a stronghold for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.