23 soldiers killed in suicide truck bombing in northwest Pakistan

Dec. 12 (UPI) -- At least 23 Pakistani soldiers were killed and dozens were injured early Tuesday in a suicide bombing after a truck loaded with explosives was driven into the perimeter wall of a police compound near the border with Afghanistan.

Responsibility for the attack on the outpost in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in the northwest of the country, which was being used as a base by the army, was claimed by an offshoot of the Pakistan Taliban.

The militants blew up the truck, demolishing the main building to collapse after a failed attempt to storm the base in Dera Ismail Khan district, according to the military.

Six militants were killed but an official said many of the dead soldiers were sleeping at the time and may have been killed by ammunition stored at the site that was set off during the attack.

The army said it had killed 27 militants overnight during operations in and around Dera Ismail Khan.

Tehrik-e-Jihad, a group previously thought to have been eliminated that seeks to replace Pakistan's secular government with a conservative Islamic state, said it carried out the base attack.

"Our suicide bombers attacked a military compound at 2:30 a.m. and started killing soldiers one by one. An army camp is set up in a school. More than 20 soldiers were killed in the attack," spokesman Mohammed Qassim said in a statement.

The group resumed its campaign of violence following the withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan in 2021, allowing the Taliban to regain control of the country after a two-decade-long insurgency.

Tuesday's attack comes amid a spike in violence in recent months in the lead-up to elections in February, adding to fears of instability in a country that is dangerously divided and in the throes of an economic crisis that forced it to seek a $3 billion IMF bailout.

Pakistan saw an 80% surge in attacks by militants either inspired or directed by the Taliban in the first half of the year, figures from the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security show.

Taliban-governed Afghanistan denies any involvement and says it does not harbor Pakistan militants.