ROP in action.

MARDAN, Pakistan (AFP) — A teenage suicide bomber killed up to 31 Pakistani army recruits at a parade ground on Thursday, an attack the Taliban said was revenge for US drone strikes and local military offensives.

Wearing school uniform, the young teen blew himself up at the parade inside a heavily guarded military compound just outside the town of Mardan, killing the soldiers with shrapnel and explosives, officials said.

It was the deadliest suicide bombing in Pakistan since a woman with a bomb strapped under her burqa killed 43 people at a UN food distribution point on Christmas Day in the tribal district of Bajaur.

The Taliban claimed responsibility and threatened “bigger attacks” in coming days to avenge American drone strikes and Pakistani military operations targeting Islamist militants in the northwestern tribal belt.

“It was a suicide attack. The teenager bomber was on foot and was wearing a school uniform,” Abdullah Khan, a senior police officer in Mardan, around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the regional capital Peshawar, told AFP.

“The death toll has now reached 31 recruits. Thirty-six have been injured, Sixteen of them are critical,” Khan told AFP.