2 people killed when militants ambush trucks with aid for northwestern Pakistan

KURRAM, Pakistan (AP) — Militants in northwestern Pakistan killed a driver and a security official Monday when they ambushed a convoy of trucks carrying food, medicine and other supplies for thousands of residents trapped by sectarian violence, authorities said.

It was the third such assault since January in Kurram, a district in the restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where at least 130 people have died in recent months in clashes between rival Shiite and Sunni tribes.

The latest attack happened when the trucks were heading to Parachinar, the main city in Kurram, police officials said.

Qaiser Abbas, a doctor at a hospital in Parachinar, said a truck driver and one of the security officials escorting the convoy was killed in the attack. He said they also received 15 wounded people after the attack.

Local authorities said police had launched an operation to apprehend the perpetrators of the attack. Authorities say some of the aid trucks were looted and burned by the attackers.

Militants in recent months have also stepped up attacks on security forces in the northwestern North and South Waziristan regions bordering Afghanistan, where troops often carry out raids on militant hideouts.

In the latest such raids on Saturday, four soldiers and 15 militants were killed in Dera Ismail Khan and North Waziristan districts.

The military said the killed militants were from the Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, and are allies of the Afghan Taliban. TTP is a separate group and has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban came into power in Afghanistan in 2022.