Policemen look at the hole in a bridge in Peshawar caused by the bomb blast on Tuesday. (AFP)

Islamabad, Aug. 12: A roadside bomb destroyed a Pakistan air force truck today killing 14 people as the North West Frontier Province Assembly expressed no confidence in President Pervez Musharraf.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it “an open war” and retaliation for recent military operations in the region.

The blast tore a large hole in the bridge on the outskirts of Peshawar city and reduced the truck to a smouldering wreck. The site was littered with debris and blood. A crowd of bystanders gathered as victims were ferried away in ambulances. Firefighters hosed down the blackened carcass of the truck and air force investigators gathered evidence.

An AP Television News cameraman at the scene said he saw at least 12 dead bodies and about a dozen wounded people. He said the victims included civilians. Provincial government spokesman Mian Iftikhar Hussain said 14 people were killed in all, mostly air force personnel, and more than 12 were wounded. Jehangir Khan, another police officer, said the dead included seven air force personnel.

A 5-year-old girl in a nearby vehicle was among the dead civilians, said Nisar Khan, a Peshawar police officer. He said police were trying to trace relatives of the girl.

The NWFP resolution was passed by 107 members out of a total of 124. They urged Musharraf to step down. “Musharraf followed policies which sparked unrest in the province,” it said, adding that these policies buffeted a wave of Talibanisation. “The flawed internal and external policies of his dictatorial regime have resulted in the large scale murder of innocent people,” the said.

Pervez ‘not scared’

Musharraf celebrated his 65th birthday yesterday in an attempt to send out a message that he was “not scared of the threat of impeachment” by the ruling coalition. The birthday party was followed by another family function, the “mehndi” of the sister-in-law of Musharraf’s son Bilal, the Dawn newspaper reported.