Militants Ambush Police Vehicles in Northwest Pakistan, Killing at Least 10 Officers

At least 10 police officers were killed on Wednesday when militants ambushed vehicles carrying police personnel in northwestern Pakistan, local officials said, triggering an exchange of gunfire between security forces and the attackers.

A local police official, Faisal Khan, said the attack took place in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan. He confirmed that two senior police officers were among those killed and that the gunbattle was continuing at the time he spoke, without providing further details.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the ambush. Suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has stepped up attacks on security forces in the region in recent months.

Pakistan has recorded a surge in violence in recent years, much of which has been blamed on the TTP. The group is separate from but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban, who returned to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021.

Pakistan frequently accuses Afghanistan's Taliban government of sheltering TTP militants, an allegation Kabul denies. Wednesday's attack adds to the mounting security challenges facing law-enforcement agencies in the country's northwestern border regions.