PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Militants armed with assault rifles and hand grenades stormed a police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, triggering an intense shootout that killed three police officers and wounded two, officials said.
The outlawed Pakistani Taliban militant group — known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP — claimed responsibility for the attack. The group is separate but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban.
The attack happened in Jamrud, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, according to district police chief Imran Khan. He said one of the attackers blew himself up and a search was underway to track down the other militants, who fled the scene when police from a nearby area were dispatched to respond to the attack.
Mohammad Khurasani, the spokesman for TTP, quickly claimed responsibility for the attack. The Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks on security forces after unilaterally ending a cease-fire with the government in Islamabad last November.
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