Pakistan death toll 14 in roadside blast

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A roadside bomb targeting a minivan in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region on Tuesday killed 14 people, a local official said, raising an earlier reported death toll of nine killed. The attack was claimed by a breakaway Taliban faction.

The blast ripped through the van traveling through a minority Shiite region of the Kurram tribal area, which borders Afghanistan, said Arif Khan, a tribal administration official in the town of Parachinar. The area has long been the scene of sectarian violence.

Five women and four children were among the 14 killed, while 10 people were wounded in the explosion. With few adequate medical facilities in the area, a Pakistani army helicopter evacuated the wounded to a nearby military hospital.

Jamat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway Taliban faction, said it was behind the attack on the Shiites.

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