Bomb Attack at Pakistan Bus Stop Kills Six, injures 17

At least six people were killed and 17 others wounded when a bomb exploded at a bus stop in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, officials said.

Officials said the bomb targeted a pick-up van used to transport passengers locally in Kohat city and surrounding villages.

"The blast occurred at a small bus stop in Kohat city. At least two vehicles were damaged in the explosion," Salim Khan Marwat, district police chief in Kohat, told Agence France Presse.

"The explosion has left six people dead and 17 injured," he added.

Fazal Khaliq, head of the emergency department at Kohat's main government hospital, also confirmed the toll.

In February, 12 people including two women and a child were killed in a bombing at the same bus stop.

It is the second attack on a passenger vehicle to hit northwest Pakistan in a week.

On Thursday, a bomb blast on a coach in the city of Peshawar killed at least seven people and wounded another six.

Pakistan's northwest has been targeted for more than a decade by al-Qaida and Taliban-led militants based in the semi-autonomous tribal regions bordering Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Pakistan's military launched a major operation in June to destroy the bases of the Taliban and other militants in the North Waziristan tribal area.

It says has killed more than a thousand militants and lost 86 soldiers since the start of the current operation.