Unknown insurgents shot dead a military commander and a suicide car bomber killed two soldiers in NWFP on Monday, hours after police killed four rebels in a firefight, officials said.
The unrest comes amid mounting concerns about the spread of a Taliban-led insurgency across the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan's lawless tribal belt and nearby regions. The commander and the soldiers died in separate ambushes while travelling on a road out of the restive town of Tank.
Gunmen hiding on both sides of the road sprayed bullets at the vehicle of Mir Wali Wazir, the local commander of a paramilitary unit, in a morning attack, senior police officer Mumtaz Zareen told AFP.
Hours later, a militant rammed his explosive-filled red Mitsubishi Pajero jeep into one of three paramilitary vehicles, killing two soldiers and himself. "It was a suicide attack. The bomber rammed his red Pajero jeep into the convoy, which killed two soldiers," paramilitary commander Muqabil Mahsud told AFP.
Soldiers retaliated with gunfire when shot at by militants perched on the roadside after the bombing and one soldier was injured, he added.
Earlier, a security official had said that a soldier had died when gunmen fired at the three paramilitary vehicles. Gunfire was still ongoing, Mahsud added. Witnesses said that some 200 militants had taken positions outside Tank on the road. The killing of the paramilitary commander followed a three-hour gunbattle between police and militants in Bannu, in which four militants were killed, local police chief Mazhar-ul Haq Kakakhel said.