Four security guards and two schoolchildren were killed in bomb attacks in Pakistan

This is a location map for Pakistan showing its capital Islamabad and the Kashmir region. (AP)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 7 (AP): A roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle carrying security forces in Pakistan’s restive northwest, killing four officers and wounding five others, officials said Thursday, and the same day two schoolchildren were killed when a mortar exploded. with them elsewhere in the northwest.

The roadside bomb attack took place on Wednesday in South Waziristan district, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, local police officer Dilawar Khan said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, have stepped up their attacks in the region since their ally, the Afghan Taliban, seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.

Later the same day on Wednesday, a mortar fired by insurgents landed near a road in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Tirah Valley, killing two schoolchildren who were walking to school, police said.

The Pakistani military has launched dozens of operations against the Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents in South Waziristan and other nearby former tribal areas, but the militants continue to carry out regular attacks.