Seven injured in attack on Pakistani troops

ISLAMABAD - At least seven people were injured when suspected militants detonated a roadside bomb to target paramilitary soldiers in Pakistan's conflict-hit North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) on Tuesday, officials said.
The homemade explosive that was thought to be remotely detonated slightly damaged a military truck in the garrison town of Kohat, located 65 kilometres south of NWFP capital Peshawar.
"Four Frontier Corps personnel and three civilians suffered minor injuries in the explosion that only smashed the vehicle's windscreen," a spokesman for the Pakistan Army said.
Tuesday's attack was the third bombing in the last two days in north-west Pakistan that had seen a resurgence in violence against security forces after a US aerial strike on the house of a militant commander in Bajaur tribal district, killing more than a dozen people last Wednesday.
Though no official responsibility for the roadside bombing was made, pro-Taleban militants earlier claimed a weekend suicide attack on a military-run bakery in NWFP's town of Mardan in which 13 people, including four soldiers, died.
Tehrik-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP), the local militant umbrella organization, warned the government against using military means against the rebels, saying these could suspend the controversial peace talks between them.
TTP spokesman Maulvi Omar claimed the action in Bajaur could have not been taken by the US military without some support from the Pakistani authorities.
Pakistan's six-week-old government is currently in dialogue with the pro-Taleban fighters in the lawless tribal region bordering Afghanistan to quell militancy that has also crept into other parts of the country.
Both sides have swapped scores of prisoners, including the country's envoy to Afghanistan who was abducted when he was traveling by road from Peshawar to Kabul on February 11.
They are expected to sign a peace deal under which partial withdrawal of government troops from the tribal area is also likely to place.