Roadside bomb kills local police chief, driver in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – A roadside bomb killed a local police chief and his driver in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, police said.

Police official Nosher Khan said the blast in the Dir district also wounded some passers-by.

No group immediately claimed responsibility, but previous attacks in the area have been claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

Pakistan has carried out a number of large military operations in the rugged northwest in recent years aimed at rooting out the Pakistani Taliban, al-Qaida and other militant groups. Islamic militants still carry out near-daily attacks, mainly targeting security forces and minority Shiites.

Also on Thursday, an army helicopter made a crash landing while evacuating a wounded soldier from a remote area near the southwestern city of Quetta, the military said in a statement. It said the crew survived but the wounded soldier died in the crash. The military did not say what caused the crash.