People carry an injured soldier of Pakistan army after a suicide attack which killed 35 soldiers in Dargai Pakistan, Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Military officials in Pakistan say a suicide bomber has killed at least 42 soldiers in an attack in the northwest of the country.

The deadly attack against a training center for Pakistani soldiers happened in the town of Dargai.

Federal Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao says the attack has injured many others. He condemned it as a terrorist act.

The minister says the unknown suicide bomber came running into the facility and detonated the explosives where soldiers had gathered for early morning training.

The northwestern Pakistani region, where the attack took place, is a known strong hold of an outlawed Islamic militant group, which supports neighboring Afghanistan's Taleban extremists.

A week ago, Pakistani military destroyed an Islamic school in a nearby tribal region, killing 80 suspected militants.

The religious seminary belonged to the militant group, where authorities say terrorists were being trained. But the group denied the allegations, saying those killed were young students and their teachers. Some of the leaders of the banned Islamic organization had publicly vowed to carry out suicide attacks against the Pakistan army to avenge the killings.

Pakistan is a vital U.S ally in the war against terrorism and has been fighting pro-Taleban militants in its northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan.

Officials say that around 700 security forces have lost their lives in the anti-terror operations that also have killed hundreds of militants.