A car filled with explosives rammed into a U.S. government vehicle near the U.S. Consulate in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar Monday, killing two people and injuring five others, wire agency reports said citing Pakistani authorities.

Some of those hurt in the explosion in the area that houses several foreign organizations including the U.N. were foreign nationals, while the identities of those dead are yet to be revealed. A four-wheel-drive vehicle was gutted in the blast, Associated Press reported citing witnesses. The vehicle was hit after it left the U.S. Consulate, the report said citing Pakistani police officer Pervez Khan.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said it was investigating the report.

Though Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan's lawless northwest, is notorious for high incidence of explosions, attacks on U.S. and foreign targets are relatively rare.

A car bomb ripped through a market in Peshawar Friday, killing at least 12 and injuring 12 others. A pickup truck exploded near a mosque in Matni, a southern suburb of Peshawar, AFP reported quoting senior police official Khurshid Khan.

Taliban and al Qaeda militants have been held responsible in the past for similar attacks.

According to Pakistan government estimates, since 2006, the war on terror has cost the country more than 35,000 citizens and 3,500 security personnel apart from the "destruction of infrastructure, internal migration of millions of people from parts of northwestern Pakistan, erosions of investment climate, nose diving of production and growing unemployment and above all brought economic activity to a virtual standstill in many part of the country."

Al-Qaeda Unemployment Investment Pakistan