Policeman, five rebels killed in Peshawar attack

PESHAWAR: At least five militants and a tribal policeman were killed in a rebel ambush and a bomb attack at checkpoints here on Wednesday, officials said.

The ambush took place before dawn at the Sarband checkpoint just outside the town of Bara in Khyber district, part of Pakistan's tribal region on the Afghan border where Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks have bases.

"More than 30 militants launched a two-pronged attack on a police checkpoint and after a gunfight five militants were killed while two policemen were wounded," senior police official Mohammad Ijaz told AFP.

Police had recovered the bodies of the five militants, he added.

The bomb blast occurred at a tribal police checkpoint in the town of Jamrud in Khyber and killed a policeman and wounded three others, Khyber administrator Shafeerullah Khan said.

"One tribal policeman was martyred and three others were wounded in the bomb blast at the checkpoint," Khan said.

Local police and government officials confirmed the attack and death toll.

A covert US drone war targets Taliban and Al-Qaeda commanders in Pakistan's rugged northwest tribal region and bomb attacks there are common.

Nearly 4,500 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and other Islamist extremist networks based in the tribal belt since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011