Militants attack a security post in northwestern Pakistan, killing 10 officers

Militants armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked a security post in northwestern Pakistan, killing 10 officers in a fierce shootout, police said Friday.
More security forces were injured in the overnight attack in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local police officer Abdul Rauf said.
He said the attackers suffered casualties but fled along with their dead and injured accomplices as authorities sent reinforcements to the security post in the town of Draban, The Associated Press reported.
Ali Amin Gandapur, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, in a statement paid tribute to the security forces killed and expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, who frequently attack security forces across the country, particularly in former tribal areas in the restive northwest.
Security forces recently conducted intelligence-based operations against Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, which have been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban came to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
The TTP is a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban.
The attack on the security post came within 24 hours of two separate operations in which security forces shot dead 19 insurgents in Bajur, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Mianwali, a city in eastern Punjab province.