Militants attack Pakistan’s Mattani police checkpoint, killing at least 5 officers
Pakistani army soldiers gather after an attack on an army camp on July 9, 2012. Gunmen killed seven security personnel at an army camp close to Islamabad, officials said, hours after a protest march against the resumption of NATO supply convoys passed through the area.
Militants swarmed a police checkpoint in northwest Pakistan late Sunday in an attack that took the lives of at least five officers, local officials today told Agence-France Presse.
The exact death toll was not entirely clear, with BBC News citing at least five killed and AFP putting the figure at six dead.
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Local police official Nasim Hayat told AFP: "Dozens of militants attacked the checkpost, killing four policemen including senior official Khushid Khan and two paramilitary FC [Frontier Constabulary] men."
The attack, which BBC said started an hours-long gun battle, took place near Mattani outside the northwestern city of Peshawar.
Hayat told AFP the attackers left the security checkpoint and three police vehicles in flames.
The Pakistani Taliban have reportedly claimed the attack.
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