A TEENAGER DRESSED in a school uniform has carried out a suicide bomb attack in north-west Pakistan killing dozens of soldiers in one of the worst attacks in recent months.
BBC News reports that the young suicide bomber attacked soldiers conducting morning exercises at a Pakistani army training camp in the town of Mardan, killing at least 31 people and injuring 40 others, according to officials.
Attacks by Taliban militants in the region had been going through a relative lull before this strike which happened at around 8am local time (3am GMT)
The town’s Police chief Abdullah Khan said that the teenage bomber was wearing the uniform of a the local Aziz Bhatti College. The New York Times reports that the boy was just 15-years-old.
The BBC reports that there has been an increase in the use of teenage bombers across Pakistan. The country’s army has been finding whole camps in the north-west where children as young as 10 or 12 were being trained to become suicide bombers.
Agence France Presse reports that Pakistan’s northwest and tribal areas have been wracked by violence, mostly against security officials , since the the US led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 which forced hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda to seek refuge in the region.
The US has previously said that eliminating sanctuaries for militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt, particularly North Waziristan, is vital to winning the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and defeating Al-Qaeda.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say