MIRAMSHAH: Three soldiers were killed and 10 others injured when a suicide attacker rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a checl(post near Miramshah in North Waziristan Agency on Monday.

The Inter-Services Public Relations, the military`s media wing, said the attacker smashed his vehicle into the Boya checkpost on Miramshah-Datakhel road, killing three soldiers and injuring 10 others, including two women.

But an official of the political administration put the number of the wounded women at five who were airlifted to Bannu by a military helicopter. A mud house adjacent to the checkpost had collapsed by the impact of the blast, leaving the women injured, he said.

(A Reuters report claimed that four soldiers had been killed and seven others wounded in the attack. `The death toll could increase,` a military official said.) Abu Baseer, a spokesman for the Ansarul Mujahideen militant organisation, claimed responsibility for the assault.

He told Dawn by phone from an unspecified location that the attack had been carried out in retaliation for recent air strikes in North Waziristan.

The group often owns up to attacks on security forces in tribal areas.

Meanwhile, two bodies were found at Zakerkhel in Mirali Tehsil. They were identified as Noor Qader and Noor Qiaz, belonging to the Qutabkhel area of Miramshah.