Peshawar, Pakistan (ANTARA News/AFP) - A suicide bomber killed an Islamist militant commander in Pakistan`s northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday, along with at least three other people, police said.

The attack damaged a house that the target, Haji Akhunzada, was building in Pakha Ghulam on the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan`s main northwestern city that runs into a militant-heavy region on the Afghan border.

"It was a suicide attack, four people have been killed. Haji Akhunzada is among the dead," Imtiaz Shah, a senior police officer, told AFP.

Peshawar has been on the frontline of Islamist suicide attacks and runs into the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border that is a headquarters for Islamist militant groups including the Taliban and Al-Qaeda affiliates.

Yameen Khan, another police officer, confirmed that the target was Akhunzada, who was a commander in the Ansar ul-Islam militant group in the tribal district of Khyber.

There has been a relative lull in recent months, but suicide attacks and shootings have killed more than 4,800 across Pakistan since government troops raided an extremist mosque in Islamabad in July 2007. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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