KABUL: Armed militants carried out a deadly coordinated attack on a police outpost in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, leaving nearly 20 police officers dead, according to Pakistani security officials.
Reuters reported on Sunday that the assault began late Saturday night when a vehicle packed with explosives rammed into a police checkpoint in the Fateh Khel area of Bannu.
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attackers later stormed the compound and opened fire on officers inside. He added that reinforcements dispatched to the scene were ambushed by militants along the route, resulting in additional casualties.
\u201cArmed men first attacked the police post with a vehicle full of explosives, then entered the compound and opened fire on police forces,\u201d the official said. \u201cAdditional security personnel were sent to assist, but the attackers had laid an ambush for them.\u201d
Meanwhile, local police official Sajjad Khan said more than 15 police officers were present at the outpost during the attack and warned that all of them may have been killed.
Sources also said the militants used drones during the assault.
Following the attack, ambulances and additional security forces were dispatched to the area, while authorities declared an emergency at the government hospital in Bannu.
The intensity of the blast reportedly destroyed the police checkpoint completely and severely damaged nearby homes.
A militant group identifying itself as Ittehad al-Mujahideen claimed responsibility for the attack.
Deadly attacks against Pakistani security forces have repeatedly occurred in different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recent years, including assaults claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KABUL: Armed militants carried out a deadly coordinated attack on a police outpost in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, leaving nearly 20 police officers dead, according to Pakistani security officials.Reuters reported on Sunday that the assault began late Saturday night when a vehicle packed with explosives rammed into a police checkpoint in the Fateh Khel area of Bannu.A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":20960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[73],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20959"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20961,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20959\/revisions\/20961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omidradio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}