Pakistan market bomb kills 10

A bomb blast ripped through a busy car market in Pakistan's infamous tribal district of Khyber yesterday, killing 10 civilians including children, officials said.

The explosion rocked Kuki Khel town in Khyber, on the Nato supply route into Afghanistan and part of Pakistan's tribal belt that Washington considers an Al-Qaeda headquarters and the most dangerous region on earth.

"Ten people have been killed, there were three children among the dead. Fourteen people were wounded in the blast," Khyber district senior official Shafeerullah Khan said.

The timed device was planted in a ditch in a crowded market where people buy and sell second-hand cars, he said.

Two intelligence officials also confirmed the death toll saying three shops and four cars were destroyed.

Officials described the area as a stronghold of Lashkar-e-Islam, a homegrown militant group that has carried out Islamist vigilante-style campaigns, kidnappings, shootings and attacks in Khyber.