Afghan President Hamid Karzai Thursday "strongly condemned" a suicide bombing attack on an army training base in Pakistan, which a man claimed was carried out by the Taliban, an official statement said.

A suicide blast ripped off the training base in Dargai town, some 140 km northwest of Pakistani capital Islamabad, on Wednesday, killing at least 42 soldiers and wounding 20 others.

In the statement issued by the Office of the Spokesman for the Afghan President, Karzai expressed his deep sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and to the people of Pakistan.

He said, "Afghans have also suffered at the hands of terrorists in the past years and understand the pains and sufferings of the people of Pakistan."

Terrorism poses a serious threat to the life and interests of the peoples of both countries, he added.

"Afghanistan and Pakistan must unite against terrorism and extremism and destroy their root causes," Karzai emphasized.

A man, who identified himself as Abu Kaleem Ahmed Ansari, phoned Pakistani journalists and said local Taliban militants had carried out the suicide attack to take revenge for the Bajur air strike, local Pakistani private Geo TV reported.

Pakistani air forces launched the air raid against a religious school in Bajur tribal region in northwestern Pakistan last week and killed about 80 persons, who Pakistani officials said were all militants.

The relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which share a 2, 400-km-long border, have soured over difference on anti-terror issues in the past years.

Afghanistan has been accusing Pakistan of supporting Taliban militants on its side to infiltrate the porous border to carry out attacks in Afghanistan, while Pakistan insists it has deployed 80, 000 troops along the border to fight terrorists.

Source: Xinhua