Three people were killed and 16 wounded when militants blew up one NATO supply oil tanker and opened fire on another in Pakistan's troubled northwest, police and officials said.

The first incident took place near a market in a suburb of Peshawar, close to the Khyber tribal district, when a remote controlled bomb went off late Saturday, triggering a huge fire and destroying up to 100 shops, police said.

"The remote-controlled device planted under the tanker exploded before it entered the tribal area, the fire has engulfed five markets," Mohammad Ijaz Khan, a senior police officer, told AFP.

Khan said the blaze destroyed up to 100 shops before the fire service brought it under control.

"Two people were killed and 15 other were wounded, militants were involved in this attack," he added.

In the second attack, around 10 kilometres from the site of the first, militants late Saturday opened fire on another oil tanker in the town of Jamrud, in the Khyber tribal district, killing the driver and wounding his helper, local official Arshad Khan told AFP.

An intelligence official in Peshawar said both tankers were carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but the official blamed Taliban militants for the attacks.

Most supplies and equipment required by foreign troops in Afghanistan are transported through Pakistan.

Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants frequently launch attacks across northwestern Pakistan and the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border.

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