Blast at Pak militant base kills five

At least five militants were killed and four others wounded today when a blast ripped through one of their bases in a restive tribal region in northwest Pakistan.
The explosion occurred at a base of Lashkar-e-Islam militant group in Kandao area of the remote Tirah valley in Khyber tribal agency, near the Afghanistan border.
A security official said five militants were killed and four others were injured in the blast.
"The exact nature of (the) blast is not known," he said.
Lashkar-e-Islam is run by Mangal Bagh, a Taliban ally. He controls the Tirah valley region and is active there despite several punitive strikes by Pakistani security forces.

Khyber is a tribal region north of North Waziristan where military operation Zarb-i-Azb was launched by Pakistan Army on June 15 following a militant attack on Karachi's international airport.
The region is located between provincial capital Peshawar and Afghanistan. An important road linking Pakistan's northwest with Kabul passes through the agency.
The region is a gateaway for Nato supplies to Afghanistan. It has witnessed several attacks directed at Nato supplies in the past.