PARACHINAR: A faction of the Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a bomb attack in northwest Pakistan that killed 12 people, a spokesman for the group said.

The roadside bomb exploded next to a passenger vehicle in the Sipaye area of the Orakzai tribal region, killing a dozen people in a sectarian attack targeting the Shi'ite community.

"We targeted them because they were Shi'ites, and they are enemies of Islam," Mohammed Afridi, spokesman for the Darra Adam Khel faction of the Pakistan Taliban told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Sunni Muslim militants loyal to al Qaeda and the Taliban have carried out high-profile attacks on members of Pakistan's Shi'ite minority in the past.

"This appears to be part of a series of attacks by militants against one particular sect," said Khushal Khan, a senior government official in Orakzai. AGENCIES