In one of the worst attacks on security forces in recent months, a teenage suicide bomber killed 27 soldiers and injured up to 40 others, some critically, in the northwest Pakistani town of Mardan on Thursday.

The youngster, dressed in a school uniform, apparently walked into the compound, officials said.

Pakistani cadets were engaged in morning exercises at an army training camp when the teenage terrorist detonated his payload.

An attack on the same training camp in 2006 killed 35 soldiers.

In March 2010, a pair of suicide bombers killed at least 45 people in Lahore, among them nine soldiers.

Police identified the bomber as a teenager by body parts retrieved from the carnage. Police said the incidence of teenage suicide bombers is not uncommon.

No group has claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack, but police suspect the Pakistani Taliban, who are entrenched in the area and have often dispatched suicide bombers.

Islamic terror groups, such as the Taliban, believe there is no greater honor than to aspire to martydom by killing infidels for the sake of Allah.

Meanwhile on Thursday, a villager discovered the bodies of two tribal policemen and a village resident alongside a road near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan. A note attached to their bullet-ridden bodies, which showed signs of having been tortured, labeled them as spies for the U.S. The three were kidnapped in January.

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AP contributed to this report.