13 soldiers killed as suicide bomber targets military convoy in Pakistan’s North Waziristan

In one of the deadliest militant attacks in recent months, a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a Pakistan Army convoy in the North Waziristan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on June 28, killing 13 soldiers and injuring 10 others. Nineteen civilians, including six children, were also wounded in the powerful blast, officials said.

The attack occurred in a volatile region bordering Afghanistan, which has seen a sharp escalation in militant activity since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Local authorities said the explosion was so intense it caused the roofs of nearby homes to collapse.

“A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle full of explosives into a military convoy,” a senior local official confirmed to AFP, adding that four of the injured soldiers are in critical condition. A district police officer said six children were among the injured after the blast damaged nearby residential structures.

The Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, a splinter faction aligned with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack through its suicide wing. The TTP has intensified its campaign against Pakistani security forces in recent years, using cross-border sanctuaries in Afghanistan — an allegation the Taliban regime in Kabul repeatedly denies.

The incident adds to a growing wave of bloodshed in Pakistan’s restive tribal belt. According to an AFP tally, at least 290 people — the majority of them security personnel — have been killed in militant attacks across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan so far this year.

In March, the Pakistan Army said it killed 10 militants linked to the TTP after a suicide bombing targeted a Frontier Corps camp near Jandola in South Waziristan. That same month, insurgents from the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) killed 25 people — including 21 passengers and four security personnel — in a bombing of the Jaffar Express train.

The rising tide of extremist violence has placed Pakistan among the world’s most impacted nations by terrorism. The Global Terrorism Index 2025 ranks Pakistan as the second most-affected country globally, reporting a 45% surge in terrorism-related fatalities — from 748 deaths in 2023 to 1,081 in 2024.

The Pakistani military has yet to issue a formal statement on the attack, but security forces have reportedly launched a search operation in the area.