AFP PESHAWAR A SUICIDE bomber targeted an anti-Taliban tribal elder in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, killing two of his security guards and wounding two others, police said.

The attack took place in Bazidkhel village on the outskirts of Peshawar a day after a bomb hidden in a toy killed a mother and wounded three young children in the Nasir Bagh area on the edge of the city.

A leader of the tribal peace committee was allegedly the target, but was not in the vehicle at the time, police spokesman Jalal Uddin said by phone.

The presumed target, Muhammad Fahim, who heads a local anti-Taliban militia, was fortunately not in the vehicle at the time of the suicide attack and so was not hurt, police confirmed.

“A suicide bomber blew himself up near the vehicle of Muhammad Fahim, head of the local anti-Taliban peace force, killing his two security guards and wounding two others,” senior local police official Shafiullah Khan said.

“Two guards of the leader of Aman Lashkar were killed on the spot and two bystanders were also injured,” he said.

No one took responsibility for the attack.

Taliban and Al Qaeda militants are active in the region, and have targeted members of the peace committee for supporting the government.

On Friday, at least 16 people were killed when a bomb ripped through a bus carrying government officials and civilians in Peshawar.

Another local police official, Shaukat Khan, confirmed the attack and casualties, and said all four security guards were policemen.

Pakistan is on the frontline of the US-led war on Al Qaeda. Since July 2007, a Taliban-led insurgency concentrated in the northwest has been fighting against the US-allied government.

In the last five years, attacks blamed on Islamist bombers have killed more than 5,000 people according to an AFP tally.