A bomb hits a vehicle guarding an anti-polio drive in Pakistan and wounds 9

A roadside bomb hit a vehicle carrying officers assigned to protect health workers conducting a polio immunization drive in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, wounding six officers and three civilians, officials said.

No polio workers were hurt in the attack in South Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local police official Tahrir Sarfraz said.

He said no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which apparently targeted police.

Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants target vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.

The latest attack came hours after Pakistan launched a drive to vaccinate 30 million children against polio. Since January, Pakistan has reported 17 new cases, jeopardizing decades of efforts to eliminate polio in the country.

Read more: ABC News