MIRANSHAH, 4 October 2007 — A roadside bomb ripped through a passenger minibus in Pakistan’s troubled tribal belt bordering Afghanistan yesterday, killing at least 14 people while security forces killed 10 pro-Taleban militants after they attacked a military checkpoint in the North Waziristan region. Two soldiers were killed in the assault.

The blast happened near Mir Ali, the second biggest town in insurgency-hit North Waziristan district, on a road that is frequently used by Pakistani military convoys.

“The bus hit an explosive device planted on the road by militants, destroying it completely. Fourteen people died on the spot and five injured were taken to hospital,” a security official said.

The US military said on Tuesday that Al-Qaeda was re-emerging in the lawless tribal areas along the Afghan frontier despite the presence of around 90,000 Pakistani troops.

A peace deal signed between the Pakistani government and militants in September 2006 in North Waziristan — one of seven semi-autonomous tribal zones — broke down in July.

In the militant attack on the checkpoint in North Waziristan early yesterday, 10 militants and two soldiers were killed.

Militant attacks on Pakistani security forces have surged since July, following the collapse of a pact and the storming of a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad, by commandos.

The violence has reinforced opposition among many Pakistanis to army chief and President Pervez Musharraf’s support for the US-led war on terrorism. Musharraf is preparing to seek a new term in office in an election on Saturday.

Two paramilitary soldiers were also killed in the pre-dawn attack on the checkpoint in Spinwarm area, 35 km northeast of the region’s main town of Miranshah.

“The fighting started early and ended at around 4 in the morning,” said military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad. The militants took away their dead, he said.

The attack came two days after militants killed two paramilitary soldiers and captured 24 in an attack on a checkpoint near the northwestern town of Bannu, a gateway to North Waziristan.

Militants in neighboring South Waziristan are still holding about 225 soldiers captured at the end of August.

North and South Waziristan are hotbeds of support for the Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants, who fled to the region after US-led forces toppled the radical Taleban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001.