A car bomb suicide attack apparently targeting a brigadier in northwest Pakistan Tuesday killed at least four people and wounded 24 others, police said, though the senior officer escaped unhurt.

A car bomb suicide attack apparently targeting a brigadier in northwest Pakistan Tuesday killed at least four people and wounded 24 others, police said, though the senior officer escaped unhurt.

The attack took place near the cantonment railway station in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

"It was a vehicle-borne suicide attack, which killed three people including an FC (Frontier Constabulary) soldier, and wounded 13 others," senior local police official Najib-ur-Rehman said, adding the two others were civilians, one a woman.

He said it seemed the attacker blew up his car very close to the FC vehicles.

Faisal Shahzad, another senior police official, said the target of the attack appeared to be Brigadier Khalid Javed, the second-most senior officer in the FC force.

Najib said the attack appeared to be in reaction to the ongoing military operation in North Waziristan tribal region.

The military began a long-awaited push to clear militant bases from North Waziristan in June after a bloody attack on Karachi airport finally sank faltering peace talks with the rebels.

Air strikes, artillery, mortars and ground troops have all been used to retake territory there.

Pakistan's army says it has killed more than a thousand militants and lost 86 soldiers since the start of the current operation.