Eight killed in western Pakistan suicide bombing

PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber detonated at a checkpoint in western Pakistan on Saturday, killing eight people and wounding five more, officials said.

The bomber set off the blast from the back of a motorbike rickshaw near the town of Mir Ali in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a local police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Four police officers were killed alongside two members of a state paramilitary force and two civilians in the attack near the border with Afghanistan, he said.

"Among the five injured personnel, the condition of three is critical, and they have been transferred to a local military hospital," he added.

A local government official who also did not want to be named confirmed the same toll of dead and wounded.