DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — Gunmen fired on an ambulance responding to a suicide‑bomb attack at a roadside police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan, which killed at least 12 people and injured roughly 35 others on Saturday, officials reported.
The blast, caused by an explosives‑laden vehicle, took place in Dera Ismail Khan, a district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to Bilal Faizi, spokesman for the provincial emergency service. Police chief Safdar Baloch added that the majority of casualties were security forces and civilians passing by.
The explosion demolished the sprawling checkpoint, and witnesses reported hearing gunfire after the blast.
Faizi stated that gunmen fired on the ambulance while emergency crews were taking victims to a nearby hospital, resulting in the death of one rescue worker and injuries to two others. He also noted that two women and a child were among those killed in the initial suicide bombing.
The Pakistani Taliban, formally Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistan has seen a rise in militant violence in recent years, much of it attributed to the TTP and the banned Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist group operating mainly in neighboring Balochistan.
Although the TTP is distinct from Afghanistan’s Taliban, the two groups remain closely allied; the Afghan Taliban regained power in 2021.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
Zardari labeled the targeting of civilians and security personnel as “highly condemnable” and urged stronger measures against the Pakistani Taliban, which he accused of committing “heinous and brutal acts” with foreign backing.
Pakistani officials have repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban government of harboring TTP fighters on its soil and have called on Kabul to stop cross‑border attacks. Afghan authorities deny allowing their territory to be used for attacks on other nations.
Saturday’s bombing occurred two days after clashes along the Pakistan‑Afghanistan border left at least 13 Afghan Taliban fighters dead, according to Pakistan’s government. The fighting followed Pakistani airstrikes earlier this week on suspected militant hideouts inside Afghanistan.
The renewed violence jeopardizes peace‑mediation initiatives led by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which seek a lasting settlement between the two neighbors.
Dera Ismail Khan lies close to South Waziristan, a former militant stronghold where Pakistan’s military has launched multiple operations in recent years.
Militants often target security forces in the area. In December 2023, a suicide bomber exploded an explosives‑laden vehicle at the main gate of a Dera Ismail Khan police station, killing at least 23 security personnel in one of the region’s deadliest assaults. The attack was claimed by Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, a small militant group thought to be an offshoot of the TTP.
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Ahmed reported from Islamabad, with Associated Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar contributing to the story.
