Four Pakistani soldiers killed in bomb blast

BANNU, Pakistan, June 2 (Reuters) A suicide car bomber attacked a Pakistani army convoy near the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border today killing four soldiers, a security official said.

Pakistani forces have been battling Taliban- and al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants in Waziristan in recent years and hundreds of soldiers and militants have been killed.

Eight soldiers were wounded in the attack on a road between the western town of Bannu and North Waziristan, said the intelligence official, who declined to be identified.

The attacker, who was also killed, rammed his vehicle into two army trucks that had broken down on the side of the road, the official said.

''The explosion occured when the car crashed into the parked vehicles,'' said the official. ''The rest of the convoy had passed.'' A military spokesman confirmed some soldiers had been killed but said he was awaiting details.

Many al Qaeda and Taliban members fled to the Pakistani side of the lawless Afghan border after US and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban regime in late 2001.

The Islamists had refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, architect of the September. 11 attacks.

Pakistan has vowed to clear foreign militants from its side of the border and subdue their Pakistani allies.

Afghanistan says the militants launch cross-border attacks against its troops and foreign forces from the Pakistani side of the porous frontier.

REUTERS SI RN1322