Suicide Bomber Kills Five Anti-Taliban Leaders in Pakistan

Five people were killed and 10 injured when a suicide bomber targeted a meeting of anti-Taliban elders near the Afghan border, security officials said.

The elderly men of the militia were holding a meeting in the Tirah Valley in the Khyber tribal region of Pakistan, when the attacker, wearing an explosive vest blew himself up, officials said.

Thougn nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack, the suspicion is on Pakistani Taliban, who have often conducted attacks against people and groups who support the Pakistan government, reports the Associated Press.

The tribal region of Khyber is believed to be a hiding place for militants.

Last month, the Pakistan military said that it had killed nearly 910 militants since initiating an offensive against them in the tribal zone of North Waziristan.

The operation" Zarb-e-Azb" was launched on June 15 against local and foreign militants in the Taliban bastion.

The military offensive against the Taliban started when the peace talks between the government and the militants failed.

Meanwhile, an Islamist faction spokesman said that a member of the new al Qaeda offshoot, "al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent", was killed in a U.S. drone attack in the Tirah Valley, reports Reuters.

The spokesman, Usama Mahmoud, said that the militant was Imran Ali Siddiqi, also known as Waliulla, who had spent eight years in jail in connection with an attack on the U.S. Consulate in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

Mahmoud said that six other people also died in the drone attack.

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri announced the launch of the Indian branch of the militant group in September.