Suicide attack at Pak army camp after fresh army offensive

Three soldiers were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up on Monday near an army base camp in Pakistan's restive northwestern Swat region where security forces have launched a fresh offensive against pro-Taliban militants.

The suicide attacker detonated his explosives when he was stopped at a check post near the army camp at Kabal town in the Swat valley. Three soldiers at the check post received minor injuries, military spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad said.

Arshad said the alertness of the troops and precautions taken by the army had prevented any major damage being caused by the suicide bomber.

Asked if the army was apprehensive about more such attacks, he said, "It's a terrorist act, and such acts have taken place earlier and they will perhaps take place again."

The suicide attack occurred shortly before journalists were to be briefed at the base camp on the ongoing operation by senior army officials.

Maulana Fazlullah, the radical cleric who leads the militants in Swat, has called on his followers to target security personnel after the army on Sunday launched a fresh offensive against rebel strongholds near Matta town.

Fazlullah, known as 'Mullah Radio' for his sermons advocating jihad broadcast from an illegal FM station, also called leaders of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q 'the sons of Unisted States president George W Bush' and described the supporters of president Pervez Musharraf as 'enemies of Islam'.

In another incident, suspected Islamic militants killed eight elders involved in efforts to broker a truce between security forces and the tribe of Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud amid escalating unrest in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

The elders were killed in two separate attacks carried out in South Waziristan on Sunday night, hours before a peace jirga or tribal council was scheduled to meet in Tank city.

"Miscreants fired at Peace Committee offices in Wana Bazar and Shikai. As a result, eight members of the Peace Committee expired, three in Wana Bazar and five in Shikai," said a statement from the army's Inter-Services Public Relations.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Five other persons were injured in the firings, local tribesmen said. The authorities had convened a jirga of the major Mehsud tribe to seek its support against the militants.

Baitullah Mehsud, who was last month made the chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, a coalition of Pakistani Taliban groups, has been blamed by President Pervez Musharraf for masterminding a series of suicide attacks, including the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

Musharraf has also said that Mehsud is recruiting and training suicide bombers. Baitullah Mehsud's spokesman has denied the charges levelled against him.

The army has been engaged in operations against militants in South Waziristan since 2007 and there are reports that a major offensive is being planned against Mehsud.