Pakistan checkpoint attack kills 9 police, force says

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police said nine police officers were killed and 26 injured when militants attacked a checkpoint in Hangu district in northern Pakistan on Wednesday.

The police force said officers killed 15 militants and wounded dozens more in the fighting. It also said an armoured personnel carrier and several other police vehicles were badly damaged.

The attack took place in Pakistan's northern border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where authorities are fighting a growing insurgency. The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack in a video statement circulated on social media.

The Hangu attack followed another checkpoint assault in Tank district, also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in which militants rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a security post. That attack killed 15 people, including soldiers, police officers and government personnel, while Pakistan's military said security forces killed 12 militants.

Pakistan has blamed increased attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan on militancy emanating from Afghanistan. Afghanistan's Taliban government denies Afghan involvement. The accusations have contributed to a bitter rift and armed conflict between the neighbouring countries, and Pakistan has carried out air strikes it says target militants on Afghan soil.

Afghanistan's Taliban government and the United Nations said dozens of civilians were killed in the latest Pakistani strikes on eastern Afghanistan in June.