Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik, center, speaks to reporters outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Feb. 4, 2013. Malik said that the government was ready to hold peace talks with domestic Taliban militants who have been waging a bloody insurgency that has killed thousands of people in the country. His comments were the latest sign of growing momentum for talks and followed statements by senior Pakistani Taliban leaders who also indicated they are ready to sit down at the negotiating table. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
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Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik, center, speaks to reporters outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad, Pakistan on Monday, Feb. 4, 2013. Malik said that the government was ready to hold peace talks with domestic Taliban militants who have been waging a bloody insurgency that has killed thousands of people in the country. His comments were the latest sign of growing momentum for talks and followed statements by senior Pakistani Taliban leaders who also indicated they are ready to sit down at the negotiating table. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash)
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People gather at the site of a suicide bombing in Hangu, Pakistan, Friday, Feb 1, 2013. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a Shiite mosque in northwestern Pakistan as worshippers were leaving Friday prayers, killing several people and wounding many in the latest apparent sectarian attack in the country, police said. (AP Photo/Abdul Basit)
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A doctor treats a Pakistani boy who was injured in a suicide bombing, at a local hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, Feb. 1, 2013. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a Shiite mosque in northwestern Pakistan as worshippers were leaving Friday prayers, killing several people and wounding dozens in the latest apparent sectarian attack in the country, police said.(AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
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A Pakistani man who was injured in a suicide bombing is rushed by volunteers to a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, Feb. 1, 2013. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a Shiite mosque in northwestern Pakistan as worshippers were leaving Friday prayers, killing several people and wounding dozens in the latest apparent sectarian attack in the country, police said.(AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
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Pakistan's army troops gather at the site following a militant attack on an army post in Serai Naurang town, near Lakki Marwat, Pakistan on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013. Militants attacked an army post in northwestern Pakistan with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and suicide vests before dawn on Saturday, killing several people including civilians, officials said. Several attackers were also reported killed in the assault. (AP Photo/Jibran Yousufsai)
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Map locates Peshwar, Pakistan
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Pakistani police commandos cordon off an area after a blast in Hangu, Pakistan on Friday, Feb 1, 2013. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a Shiite mosque in northwestern Pakistan as worshippers were leaving Friday prayers, killing several people and wounding scores in the latest apparent sectarian attack in the country, police said. (AP Photo/Abdul Basit)
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A Pakistani youth, who was injured in a suicide bombing is rushed to a hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, Feb. 1, 2013. A suicide bomber detonated his explosives outside a Shiite mosque in northwestern Pakistan as worshippers were leaving Friday prayers, killing several people and wounding dozens in the latest apparent sectarian attack in the country, police said.(AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad)
Bomb kills 16, missiles hit militants in Pakistan
PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) — A bomb exploded near a marketplace in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing 16 people, and suspected U.S. missiles hit a militant compound — the latest incidents of rising violence in the region, government and intelligence officials said.
Six militants were killed when two missiles suspected of being fired from U.S. drones hit a compound in Bobar Ghar belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban, according to two intelligence officials. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the identities of the militants killed were not yet known.
The bomb blast occurred in Kalaya, the main town in the Orakzai tribal area, said local government administrator Khaistan Akbar. Orakzai is one of several areas in the semiautonomous tribal region along the Afghan border where the military has been battling a domestic Taliban insurgency.
The blast occurred near government and security offices, according to another local administrator, Javed Khan. It damaged one of the shops in the market.
Initially, the death toll stood at 10 with 23 people wounded. But Khan said that six of those who were wounded later died at a hospital in Kalaya, increasing the death toll to 16. The 17 others who were wounded were being treated, including three who were in critical condition.
No group claimed responsibility for the latest bombing, but Taliban militants regularly target security forces and civilians in the area.
The military has launched multiple operations against the Pakistani Taliban in the northwest since 2009, but the militants have proved resilient and continue to carry out attacks.
Also on Friday, unknown attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades at a paramilitary convoy in southwestern Baluchistan province, killing one soldier and sounding five others, said police official Babil Dashti. Two vehicles were damaged in the attack in Turbat district, he said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Baluch nationalists have waged a decades-long insurgency against the government for greater autonomy and a larger share of the province's natural resources. The province is also home to many radical Islamist militants.
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Associated Press writer Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Pakistan and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan contributed to this report.
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