ISLAMABAD, July 14 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 18 Pakistani paramilitary soldiers and wounded 24 on Saturday in an attack in the volatile North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, a military spokesman said.

The military said earlier the blast had killed eight soldiers and wounded 15. Military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said the attack might have been linked to an army assault on a radical mosque in Islamabad this week, in which 75 supporters of hardline clerics were killed.

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