PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — A suicide car bomber smashed into a police checkpost in Pakistan's restive northwestern Swat valley on Sunday, killing three policemen and five civilians, officials said.
The attack in Kabal district was in an area where the military has launched an operation against militants loyal to pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah.
"It was a suicide attack. The bomber hit the checkpost barricades with the car and then blew himself up," provincial government spokesman Amjad Iqbal told AFP.
Confirming the toll, chief military spokesman major general Waheed Arshad told AFP the dead suicide bomber was suspected of belonging to a local terrorist outfit.
"The overall security situation is under control in Swat valley," Arshad added.
A military statement said that a curfew had been relaxed in Swat district from 7:00am to 6.00pm "in order to facilitate common people."
Security forces on Sunday arrested three militants including a foreigner from the town of Kanju, a separate military statement said.
On Saturday, officials claimed they had almost cleared the Swat valley of rebels, killing 290 and arresting another 143 in recent weeks.
Fazlullah, who was leading the uprising to press for the imposition of harsh Islamic Sharia law, was on the run in the scenic valley's mountains, along with hundreds of his loyal fighters, they said.
Fazlullah is also nicknamed "Mullah Radio" because he used a private FM station to call for holy war.
Separately, suspected militants fired rockets at an air force base in the northwest city of Peshawar early Sunday and bombed a girls' school, but there were no casualties, police said.
Two rockets landed in a field at the base while a third exploded on a road near the area after midnight, senior police official Mohammad Tahir Khan told AFP.
Part of the base is used for domestic and international passenger flights, with Peshawar the provincial capital of North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
Peshawar is located close to Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal zones where government forces are battling pro-Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
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