News- Middle East: Pakistani security and government sources have said that at least 16 soldiers were killed and two dozen more, including civilians, were injured in a bombing attack in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

The suspected perpetrator, who died in the attack, drove an explosives-laden vehicle into a bomb disposal unit in Khadi Market in Mir Ali town on Saturday morning, they added.

"A suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a military convoy," a local government official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media, told AFP.

"The explosion also caused the roofs of two houses to collapse, injuring six children," a local police source added.

The attack was claimed by the Hafiz Gul Bahadur militant group, reportedly a subdivision of the Pakistani Taliban group, which itself is said to be linked with the Taliban group governing Afghanistan.

Following the US-led Western troops' abrupt exit from Afghanistan and the coinciding return in Kabul of the Taliban to power after a two-decade gap, Islamabad has been witnessing an increase in violence on its border regions neighboring with the Afghans.

Islamabad blames the ruling Afghan Taliban for supporting the neighboring militants, allowing their Pakistani counterparts to use its soil to launch counterattacks against Pakistanis.

However, Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban has rejected the accusations against the Kabul government raised by Islamabad.

During the US-led invasion of Afghanistan from October 2001 to August 2021, Islamabad provided refuge to the Afghan Taliban leadership.

However, since the Afghan Taliban resumed power in Kabul, border tensions between the two sides began to rise.

Islamabad says the Taliban’s resumption of power has been followed by a surge in armed attacks in Pakistan’s western regions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan Provinces.

Terrorist attacks frequently targeting Pakistani government officials and security forces are usually claimed by the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group.

Source: Press TV