Aref Karimi—AFP
At least 13 killed after TTP militants attack rival Hanafi group’s compound.
At least 13 militants died in northwest Pakistan on Thursday when the Taliban launched a gun and suicide attack against a rival group, officials said.
A senior government official said that clashes erupted when fighters from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) attacked militant commander Maulvi Nabi Hanafi’s house in Pakistan’s Orakzai tribal district.
“At least 10 militants from the Hanafi group, two attackers and a suicide bomber were killed. About 20 others along with two women have been injured,” the official in Orakzai said on condition of anonymity.
The attack began with a suicide bomber detonating a car bomb outside the compound, followed by militants launching an assault with guns.
Hanafi, who leads an anti-Taliban militia, was wounded in the attack but survived, the official said. A senior security official in Peshawar confirmed the clashes and death toll, adding that militants had surrounded the area and would not allow anyone to enter.
TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid claimed the attack.
“Hanafi was fighting against the TTP and anyone who will fight with us will face the same fate,” Shahid said from an undisclosed location.
Orakzai is one of Pakistan’s seven semi-autonomous tribal regions along the Afghan border and is the hometown of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud.