(Changes dateline, adds quote, background) KHAR, Pakistan, June 2 (Reuters) - A roadside bomb killed five people on Saturday near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan in a tribal region which is a hotbed of support for Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants, police and officials said. The blast occurred in the Salarzai village some 15 km (9 miles) east of Khar, the main town in the Bajaur region, a senior tribal police official, Mamoor Khan, said. "Five people, including a local journalist and a government official, were travelling in a car when it hit a roadside bomb, killing all of them," Khan said. Bajaur is the most north-easterly of Pakistan's several tribal regions and is opposite the Afghan province of Kunar where U.S. troops have been battling al Qaeda and Taliban insurgents. In January 2006, a CIA-operated drone aircraft carried out an attack in Bajaur aimed at al Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al Zawahri. About 18 people, including some al Qaeda operatives, were killed but Zawahri was not present. In October, Pakistani army helicopters raided a madrasa, or Islamist school, in Bajaur killing about 80 people. Many al Qaeda and Taliban members fled to Pakistan's semi-autonomous border lands and were given shelter by the Pashtun tribes after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. Pakistan has tried to clear out the foreign militants and the authorities have also been trying to involve the independent-minded tribes, who inhabit both sides of the border, to rein in the militants. In March, tribesmen in Bajaur gave the government assurances that they would not shelter foreign fighters.
