"The commandos were taking dinner in their mess at Tarbela town when a suspected suicide bomber blew himself up at its gate," a security official told AFP. Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad, however, said the authorities were investigating the incident. "We are checking the cause of the blast which occurred in the dining hall for the army unit," he told AFP.
Pakistan has suffered a string of attacks since the raid of 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. 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 tribal areas.