At least 15 Pakistani soldiers have been reported killed and 11 wounded in a suicide attack on an army building near the capital Islamabad.
Eleven others were wounded, six seriously, in the explosion which coincided with heavy fighting in Pakistan's tribal areas and the visit of US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.
A security official said the perpetrator blew himself up in the canteen when soldiers were dining.
The blast at the camp, about 70km northwest of Islamabad, came as the military said it killed 70 Islamic militants in two days of intense fighting in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Pakistan has suffered a string of attacks since the raid of the pro-Taliban Red Mosque in Islamabad in July, piling pressure on key US ally in ‘war on terror’ President Pervez Musharraf as he struggles with a political crisis ahead of general and presidential elections.
Militants have targeted security forces since army troops besieged and stormed the mosque in July in which more than 100 people were killed.
Earlier this month two suicide attacks in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad left 31 people dead, most of them security personnel.
The 4 September bombings in Rawalpindi, where the army headquarters is based, added to insecurity in the country.
One bomber blew himself up on a bus carrying defence ministry workers and another struck on a route used by army officers to travel to the military headquarters in the sprawling but heavily secured city.
Interior ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said the attacks had suspected links to pro-Taliban militants backed by al-Qaeda who are fighting the military in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
