PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A bomb targeting a Pakistani military vehicle instead struck a passenger van Wednesday in a city in the country’s northwest, killing at least eight civilians, authorities said.

Police official Tahir Ayub Khan said the afternoon blast on the outskirts of Peshawar wounded another 27 civilians, as well as three air force officers in the targeted vehicle. Khan said the bomb was set off by remote control. The passenger van and the air force vehicle were driving through the area at the time.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, and Khan said authorities were still investigating the motive.

Peshawar is considered the gateway to Pakistan’s tribal areas. Militants fighting the Pakistani government often target security officials in and around the city, although unrest has dropped in recent years.

Also Wednesday, security officials said they found the bodies of 29 militants in an area in northwest Pakistan where the military recently staged a two-week battle against Taliban fighters from Afghanistan. The military pushed the militants back into Afghanistan on Sept. 8.

A political official in the Bajur area where the fighting took place said at the time that the death toll included at least 80 militants, 18 civilians, 12 anti-Taliban militiamen, and eight soldiers.

The security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, did not say exactly when they found the 29 bodies. But a political official in Bajur, Jehangir Azam Wazir, said 19 of the corpses were discovered Tuesday.

Pakistan has complained that Afghan and US-led forces have not done enough to stop militants from staging cross-border attacks from Afghanistan.