Suicide bomb hits Pakistan police, kills 13

A suicide bomber has struck a police patrol vehicle in Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border, killing 13 people, including seven policemen, officials said.

The blast tore through the vehicle in the Wazirdand area of Khyber, the infamous mountain district that straddles a main supply line for NATO troops in Afghanistan and is a hotbed of homegrown Taliban-linked militant groups.
Three other vehicles were heavily damaged by flying shrapnel. The shoes and slippers of victims were scattered across the blood-spattered road, witnesses said.
"The death toll has risen to 13. Seven are khasadar (tribal policemen) and we are trying to ascertain the identity of six others," Shafeerullah Wazir, the administration chief of Khyber, said.
Wazirdand is a small town near Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar and on the edge of the tribal belt, which lies outside direct government control and has been branded by US officials as the headquarters of Al Qaeda.
There was no claim of responsibility, but Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked militants have killed around 3,000 people in bomb attacks across Pakistan since July 2007 to oppose the government's alliance with the US.
The suicide bomber struck hours after a Pakistani military helicopter crashed in Khyber while operating against militants, officials said.
The fate of the two people on board was not immediately clear.