Deadly blast hits Pakistani troops

Initial reports had said that 13 soldiers had been killed when the bomber struck the convoy around 50km north of the region's main town, Miran Shah.

Major General Waheed Arshad said the death toll could rise since troops were searching for one of four vehicles attacked that rolled off the road.

The attack is the latest deadly incident to hit the region over the last few days.

Opposition

Two suicide blasts killed eight people on Thursday, and police on Friday said they seized three men and a car packed with seven suicide vests, 100 mortar shells and other explosives in northwestern Dera Ismail Khan town.

Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, has provoked anger in the region after this week's army assault on the pro-Taliban mosque complex in Islamabad that left 86 people dead.

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