Islamabad  - Gunmen on a motorbike fired at a vehicle in Pakistan's capital on Friday, injuring an army brigadier and his driver, police said.

The attackers ambushed the senior officer as he left his house in a residential neighbourhood in Islamabad, a duty officer at the local police station said.

"Fortunately, the driver managed to speed away," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The brigadier was said to be in a stable condition at the local hospital.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the third of its kind in the last two weeks.

Another brigadier, who was on leave from a UN peacekeeping mission, was killed along with one soldier in a similar drive-by shooting on October 22.

Taliban militants have intensified attacks on civilian and official targets since government forces launched a major offensive mid-October in their heartland of South Waziristan, a remote tribal district located near the Afghan border.

The attacks killed around 300 people last month alone. (dpa)