Shafaq News/ A suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden vehicle attacked an army base in Pakistan on Tuesday, resulting in the deaths of eight soldiers and ten militants. The attacker struck the perimeter wall of the base.
The Pakistani army reported that the suicide bombers rammed their vehicle into the outer wall of an army housing complex in Bannu, a city in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, early Monday morning.
The explosion caused part of the wall to collapse and destroyed nearby infrastructure, leading to the deaths of the eight soldiers.
In response to the attack, the military stated that security forces killed ten assailants.
"A decisive and immediate response from the security forces prevented a major disaster," the military said.
Officials confirmed that all ten militants involved in the bombing of the Pakistani military facility were killed in an 18-hour operation.
A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, led by militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, claimed responsibility for the attack, which Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other officials condemned.
Pakistan has consistently expressed its concerns to the Taliban government in neighboring Afghanistan.
The military urged Afghanistan to "deny terrorists the continued use of Afghan territory for their operations and to take effective action against such elements."
The Pakistani armed forces "will continue to defend the nation and its people against the malice of terrorism and will take all necessary measures against these threats emanating from Afghanistan," the military stated.
There was no immediate response from Kabul.
Pakistan has experienced a surge in militant attacks, particularly in the northwestern region bordering Afghanistan, in recent years.
Previous attacks have been blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, a separate group that is allied with the Afghan Taliban.