ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden motorbike into a vehicle carrying Pakistani soldiers in the volatile north-west of the country near the Afghan border on Wednesday, killing one civilian and wounding five, sources said.

The attack occurred in the tribal district of North Waziristan, a region that long served as headquarters for the militants linked to al-Qaeda and allied Haqqani network of Afghan Taliban.

The vehicle was targeted in the main marketplace during afternoon rush hour, an intelligence official told DPA.

Local police official Mehmood Khan confirmed the bombing, saying details of the casualties were being collected.

The attacks occurred weeks after Pakistani Taliban, an umbrella organization for several groups of Islamist militants, pulled out of peace talks with Islamabad following months of negotiations brokered by the interim Afghan government.

Pakistani Taliban, who are different from the Afghan militants now governing the country, have killed around 80,000 people in decades of violence.

Pakistani military pushed the militants into Afghanistan in a series of offensives between 2008 and 2014.

But the group has been regrouping in their former stronghold regions on the Afghan border since the fall of Kabul to the Afghan Taliban last year.