Pakistan army helicopters have fired missiles killing three militants, officials say, in apparent retaliation for a Taliban bomb attack that killed 20 soldiers in the restive northwest.
The helicopters fired at a road in the village of Musaki situated in the same tribal region as the bombing earlier on Sunday, intelligence and civil administration officials said.
One of the missiles struck a nearby house, killing a five-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy, a local administration official added, although security officials could not confirm the civilian casualties.
The bombing earlier on Sunday, claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, killed 20 soldiers and wounded 30 when it ripped through a military convoy.
The attack, one of the deadliest to hit Pakistani security forces in recent years, happened in the city of Bannu near the North Waziristan tribal region which is a stronghold of militants linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
"A vehicle-borne improvised explosive device caused the blast," a senior military official said, adding the exact circumstances were unclear.
An official statement said 20 soldiers were killed and 30 injured in the attack, which hit one of the vehicles in the convoy at 8.45am local time.
The convoy was about to leave for the town of Razmak in North Waziristan when the blast hit one of the civilian vehicles hired to move troops.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Shahidullah Shahid claimed responsibility for the convoy bombing.
"It was part of our fight against a secular system," he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"We will carry out more such attacks in future," he said, adding the Taliban were seeking revenge for the deaths of their former chief Hakimullah Mehsud and deputy Waliur Rehman - both killed in US drone attacks.
The Taliban vowed they would not engage in any dialogue with the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif following the death of Mehsud.
But Shahid said the group "is ready for meaningful negotiations despite facing huge leadership losses, if the government proves its authority and sincerity" by halting drone attacks and withdrawing troops from tribal areas.
Taliban insurgents have led a bloody campaign against the Pakistani state since 2007, staging hundreds of attacks on security forces and government targets.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the attack, adding he would cancel a planned visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in the wake of a recent spike in terrorism.
Pakistan, which joined the US-led "war on terror" in 2001, says more than 40,000 people have been killed in the country since then by militants who oppose Islamabad's US alliance.
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