Suicide Blast Kills 7 in Pakistan as Border Tensions with Afghanistan Escalate

(Pakistan suicide bombing Photo credit: Al jazeera)

A suicide bomber driving a three-wheel vehicle packed with explosives has killed at least seven people and left 20 others wounded in northwest Pakistan, according to police.

The attack comes just days after another suicide bombing in which a car laden with explosives was detonated at a checkpoint in Bannu, followed by a militant assault on police that left at least 15 people dead.

A senior police official, Muhammad Sajjad Khan, told AFP that preliminary reports indicate the attacker drove toward two traffic police officers manning a checkpoint before detonating the explosives.

The incident follows a diplomatic escalation on Monday, when Pakistan's foreign ministry summoned the most senior Afghan diplomat in the country after determining that a deadly suicide attack over the weekend had been "masterminded by terrorists residing in Afghanistan."

Afghanistan's Taliban government has consistently rejected Pakistan's allegations that Afghan soil is being used as a base of operations by militant groups.

Relations between the two neighboring countries have deteriorated sharply in recent months, descending into deadly armed confrontations that have included Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan cities.