A car bomb aimed at a Pakistani security force convoy killed 16 people and wounded 28 others Sunday on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, AFP quoted an official as saying.

A car bomb aimed at a Pakistani security force convoy killed 16 people and wounded 28 others Sunday on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, AFP quoted an official as saying.

The attack happened not far from the semi-autonomous tribal belt where Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked groups have bases, as British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the capital Islamabad.

Jamil Shah, spokesman for the government-run Lady Reading Hospital in
Peshawar, said 16 people were killed and 28 others injured.

At least three children were among the dead, and two children and a woman were among those hurt, he added.

Police said most of the victims were civilians because the bomb targeting the Frontier Corps (FC) convoy exploded in a bustling market area.

"The car bomb was parked in a market packed with the general public. When the FC convoy comprising of three vehicles passed by, the bomb exploded and hit a vehicle in the convoy," police official Shafiullah Khan told AFP.

"But many civilians were killed and wounded in the attack because there was a big rush in the market at the time," he added.