A militant attack on a security checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan, a roadside bomb and a drive-by shooting targeting policemen killed 13 people on Friday, including a civilian, AP cited officials as saying. The attack in the northwestern tribal region took place before dawn, when a group of militants opened fire at a security checkpoint, killing eight troops, according to government administrator Iqbal Khan. Khan said the attack happened in Jamrud, a main town in the Khyber tribal region bordering Afghanistan, and that four of the attackers also died in the fighting. He added that authorities had launched a major operation in Jamrud to try and find the rest of the attackers. Jamrud is 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb on Friday struck a vehicle carrying police in Peshawar, killing an officer and wounding two others, officer Ghaffar Khan said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks.
