Taliban suicide bomb in Pakistan kills 10 people

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- A suicide bomber in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region detonated near a police checkpoint Tuesday, killing at least 10 people and injuring another 20.

The attack -- which was claimed by militants with the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, according to DAWN News -- occurred on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

A Pakistani journalist, a child and at least five police officers, including a local commander, were killed in the blast. The BBC reported the bomber rode a motorbike and targeted a police vehicle in a market.

"Cars and the area around the site of the blast are engulfed in fire," The Express Tribune quoted an eyewitness as saying.

The Pakistani military has for years battled militants, including the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida-linked groups, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a rugged mountainous region bordering Afghanistan.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province saw a similar attack last month in the town of Mardan, when a suicide bombing claimed by the Pakistani Taliban killed at least 26 people and injured more than 40 near a government office of the National Database and Registration Authority.

It was one of the deadliest attacks in the country since Taliban gunmen killed at least 150 students and teachers at a school in Peshawar in December 2014.