Suicide bombing kills 2 Pakistani soldiers, including lieutenant colonel in restive northwest

This is a locator map for Pakistan with its capital, Islamabad, and the Kashmir region. (AP Photo)

ISLAMABAD — A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a security convoy in northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan on Saturday, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel, the Pakistani military said.

It said the attack took place in Bannu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where security forces have battled militants for years.

The military said Pakistan would not “exercise any restraint” and that operations against those responsible for the violence would continue “irrespective of their location,” language that appeared to signal rising tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.

No group claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban who have been blamed for previous such attacks. There was no immediate statement from the Afghan government.

The latest attack came two days after Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned a senior Afghan diplomat and lodged a strong protest over a recent deadly attack on a security post that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers and a girl in the Bajaur district near the Afghan border.

Local police have said the man who carried out the attack in Bajaur was an Afghan national.

In separate statements, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the bombing and praised Lt. Col. Shehzad Gul and Sepoy Karamat Shah for sacrificing their lives.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant violence in recent years, much of it blamed on Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and outlawed Baloch groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, who returned to power in 2021. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from inside Afghanistan, a charge both the group and Kabul deny.

Relations between the neighboring countries have remained tense since October, when deadly border clashes killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan. A Qatar-mediated ceasefire has largely held, but subsequent talks in Istanbul failed to produce a formal agreement, and relations remain strained.

Munir Ahmed, The Associated Press