10 Police Officers Killed as Militants Launch Deadly Ambush on Security Vehicles in Pakistan's Kohat District

Peshawar: Militants ambushed vehicles carrying police officers in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, triggering a gunbattle that killed at least 10 officers, officials said.

The attack took place in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, local police official Faisal Khan said.

He said two senior police officers were among the dead and an exchange of fire between security forces and the attackers was ongoing He provided no further details.

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

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

Pakistan frequently accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of sheltering TTP militants, an allegation Kabul denies.