Up to 20 people were wounded Friday in an foiled car bomb attack on a military camp close to a key road tunnel in Pakistan's violence-plagued North West Frontier Province, officials said.
The incident occurred near the lawless town Darra Adam Khel, about 45 kilometres south of the provincial capital Peshawar, as paramilitary troops fired at a pickup truck that failed to heed warnings to stop at a cordon, reported dpa.
"The gunfire detonated explosives packed in the vehicle, killing the suicide bomber," a military spokesman said, adding that flying debris and shrapnel wounded around 20 Frontier Corps troops guarding Kohat Tunnel.
There were reports that the attack was preceded by the arrest of four militants in the nearby garrison town of Kohat earlier on Friday.
Clashes broke out around Kohat Tunnel early this year during which pro-Taliban fighters also briefly captured the 1.9-kilometre tunnel on the strategic Indus Highway, which connects the province with central and southern Pakistan.
Tensions rose in Darra Adam Khel, a town known for illegal trade of arms and narcotics, in mid-2007 when militants bombed several video shops and girls' schools in an attempted to enforce strict Taliban-style laws in the region.