Islamabad  - Dozens of Taliban militants attacked a NATO transit terminal in north-western Pakistan Saturday with rockets, damaging shipping containers carrying supplies for Western troops in Afghanistan, a police official said.

The attack took place at the Farhad terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province.

"The containers caught fire after the attackers fired several rocket-propelled grenades at the terminal," said local police official Fazal Mohammad Khan.

The security forces exchanged fire with the insurgents for around two hours but no one was injured, Khan added.

US and NATO forces in landlocked Afghanistan get around 75 per cent of their food and military supplies through Pakistan.

Taliban militants in recent months have carried out dozens of raids on NATO transport terminals in Peshawar and convoys of trucks travelling from Peshawar through the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan.

The rebels have also repeatedly targeted Pakistani security forces guarding the key NATO supply route.

On Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque along the Pakistan-Afghan highway near Jamrud town, killing 53 people and injuring more than 160.

Fifteen security personnel from the tribal police, known as the Khasadar force, and the paramilitary Frontier Corps died in the attack and two dozen were injured, said Fida Bangish, a government official in Jamrud.

Many truck drivers and their helpers who stopped to offer Friday prayers at the mosque were also killed and wounded in the blast, which caused the two-story building to collapse.

The mosque bombing came hours before US President Barack Obama vowed to intensify the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, unveiling a new strategy for the region.

Local analysts said they fear the revised strategy that presses Pakistan to eliminate militant hideouts in its mountainous tribal region along the Afghan border would expand the conflict in the country, which has seen suicide bombings increase dramatically over the past two years. (dpa)