PESHAWAR - Four suicide attackers armed with car bombs and rockets targeted a fort in Pakistan, killing a soldier and wounding at least seven in an area troubled by Taliban, officials said Monday.

The squad targeted the post manned by paramilitary in the northwestern town of Timargarah in Lower Dir at around 2:15 am (2115 GMT Sunday), local police chief Qazi Jamil said.

"There were four suicide bombers. They tried to attack the post. All four were killed. Their vehicles were also fitted with rockets and mortars," senior police officer Qazi Jamil told AFP.

One soldier was killed, 12 troops and a civilian were wounded, Jamil said.

Lower Dir is around 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of the Swat valley. Pakistan waged a major offensive against the Taliban in both districts last year but now says the region is back under army control.

The military said troops destroyed two car bombs and killed four suicide bombers, "averting an attack" on the Timargarah checkpost. One soldier died in the incident and seven others were wounded, the military said.

For two years, radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah led thousands of followers in an uprising that paralysed much of Swat, promoting a repressive brand of Islamic law, opposing secular girls` education and beheading opponents.

A Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked bombing spree across Pakistan has killed more than 3,400 people in three years since government troops besieged a radical mosque in the capital Islamabad in July 2007.

Last Thursday, a twin suicide attack at a major Muslim shrine in the eastern city of Lahore killed 43 people people and wounded scores more.

BDST: 12:28 HRS, July 5, 2010