Bomb blast in NW Pakistan kills 14

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PESHAWAR, Jan 30 (Reuters): A suspected suicide car-bomber set off his explosives near a security check-post in the northwestern Pakistani region of Bajaur Saturday killing 14 people, police said.
Pakistani security forces have in recent days stepped up operations against militants in Bajaur, an ethnic Pashtun militant stronghold on the Afghan border, as part of efforts to defeat Pakistan Taliban militants fighting the state.
The army mounted a major offensive against al Qaeda-linked militants in Bajaur in 2008 and declared the region largely cleared after months of clashes.
Bajaur is opposite the eastern Afghan province of Kunar and has long been an infiltration route for militants entering Afghanistan to fight US-led forces there.
The United States sees the elimination of militant enclaves in northwest Pakistan, from where the Taliban orchestrate their insurgency in Afghanistan and al Qaeda plots violence further afield, as vital for bringing stability to Afghanistan.
Late on Friday, a US drone aircraft fired a missile into a militant compound in Pakistan's North Waziristan region, also on the Afghan border, killing nine militants, security officials said.