22 Pakistani soldiers killed in bomb attack

At least 22 security personnel were killed and 38 others injured when the Pakistani Taliban attacked an army convoy in the country' Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Sunday.

The convoy of vehicles was carrying soldiers from Bannu district to Miranshah area in the North Waziristan tribal region when it was targeted with a bomb near Razmak gate in the cantonment area, the daily Dawn reported.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed the responsibility for the attacks, and said attacks on security forces would continue.

The blast was suspected to have occurred in one of the privately hired vehicles.

Pakistan Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan condemned the attack and sought a report from the inspector general of Frontier Corps with the details related to the hiring of the private vehicles for transportation.

Emergency and security forces reached the site and shifted the injured soldiers to hospitals.

Security forces have cordoned off the area and a probe of the incident has started.

Bannu town, which stands at the gateway to the semi-autonomous Waziristan tribal region, is 150 km southwest of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Bannu town has witnessed a number of attacks, including one on the town's central jail in April 2012 when 384 prisoners escaped, the report said.