Bombing kills at least 12 in northwest Pakistan, police say

According to police and a hospital official, a bombing attack occurred at a security facility in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan’s northwestern border province. At least 12 people were killed, according to the official.

A security official who requested anonymity reported to The Associated Press news agency that two attackers rammed two explosive-laden vehicles into the compound’s wall and other attackers stormed the site before fleeing.

According to Muhammad Noman, a spokesman for Bannu District Hospital, the attack resulted in the deaths of 12 people and the injuries of 30 others, all of whom had been taken hostage by fallen buildings and walls.

According to a hospital list, at least seven children were listed as the victims.

A group affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and claimed the deaths of numerous security forces personnel. The military did not immediately respond to any reports of casualties.

Six attackers were killed in an “exchange of fire” following the attack, according to a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity with AFP.

He claimed that the blasts had caused “two four-foot craters” and that at least eight of the area’s homes had been destroyed.

The attack, which was Pakistan’s third one since Ramadan began on Sunday, was led by Jaish al-Fursan, who claimed responsibility for it. The group claimed in a statement that vehicles loaded with explosives were the cause of the explosions.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s chief minister, Ali Amin Gandapur, criticized the incident and said he had contacted senior police officials about the incident.

Key Taliban leaders in the same province attended a suicide bombing that killed six people at an Islamic religious school in Pakistan in the days prior to the attack.

More than 1,600 people were killed in attacks last year, according to Islamabad-based analysis group the Center for Research and Security Studies, which was the country’s deadliest in a decade.