Reuters, 18 Feb 2010.

At least 10 people, including an Islamist militant commander, were killed on Thursday in a bomb blast in a remote village market in Pakistan's Khyber region on the Afghan border, officials said.

The attack apparently targeted a commander of Lashkar-e-Islam militant group based in the region. The group is not part of Pakistan's main Taliban alliance but espouses the same hardline interpretation of Islam.

"The death toll could rise as many people are still trapped under the rubble," a Pakistani intelligence official in the region told Reuters by telephone.

Al Qaeda-backed Taliban militants have launched a wave of bomb attacks across Pakistan in retaliation for military offensives on their strongholds.

But the officials said the Thursday blast appeared to be related to rivalry between militant factions.

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