A suicide car bomber attacked an army checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing four security personnel, while violence elsewhere in the region left at least five suspected militants dead, authorities said. Pakistan is engaged in a pair of major offensives against militants who use pockets of its northwest to stage attacks on American and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan. Insurgents have retaliated for the offensives by staging a wave of attacks throughout Pakistan. The suicide attack on Monday occured in Gashkor, a village in the Swat Valley. The attack killed four security personnel and wounded another three, a Pakistan army statement said. Swat, a former tourist destination, is the site of one of the two offensives. The other offensive is focused on Bajaur, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan that is a rumored hiding place of Al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden. Security forces used artillery fire to kill at least five suspected insurgents in parts of Bajaur overnight, said Jamil Khan, a government representative in the area. The military claims to have killed 1,600 insurgents in Bajaur since August.
