Suicide bomb hits bus carrying kids in Pakistan

updated 11:38 p.m. ET Dec. 9, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A suicide bomber struck a bus carrying schoolchildren Monday at a military base in northwestern Pakistan, wounding at least five children, an army spokesman said.

The attack occurred at the army's base at Kamra, and the wounded children were being transported to a hospital, Maj. Gen. Arshad Waheed said. The bus driver and a guard were also injured.

"This barbaric attack shows how cruel the terrorists are," he said.

Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, has witnessed scores of terrorist attacks that have claimed hundreds of lives in the past several years.

The latest attack came a day after a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into a police outpost, killing four people and wounding several others. That attack occurred in Pakistan's Swat valley, the site of a military operation against Islamic militants loyal to a fugitive cleric.

Militants this summer seized tracts of the area, a former tourist destination 100 miles from the capital, Islamabad. On Saturday, the army announced that government troops had retaken all the towns seized by the militants, killing 290 of them and capturing 140.

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