Rescue workers load a body of a police officer, who was killed in a militant attack, into an ambulance at a hospital in Tank, Pakistan, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. Militants staged attacks on a regional police headquarters and an army post in a former Taliban stronghold in northwest Pakistan before dawn Friday, triggering firefights that killed a few police officers and three insurgents, security officials said. (AP Photo)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Militants attacked a regional police headquarters and two military posts in northwest Pakistan early Friday, triggering firefights that killed four officers and three insurgents, security officials said.

The attacks came three days after a suicide bomber in the same region rammed his car into a police station’s main gate and five others opened fire, killing 23 officers in this year's worst attack on troops.

Local police chief Iftikhar Shah said two police officers were “martyred” and three others were wounded in an attack on the police headquarters in the town of Tank in Dera Ismail Khan, while two of the attackers died. He said a third militant was killed by soldiers during the assault on a nearby army post. Hours later, Pakistani Taliban also attacked a military post in the northwestern Khyber region bordering Afghanistan, killing two soldiers and wounding five others, local police official Salim Khan said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for Friday's attacks, but suspicion was likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.

The group is separate from Afghanistan's Taliban though it is allied with the Afghan movement, which seized power in the neighboring country in August 2021 as United States and NATO troops were in the final stages of withdrawing after 20 years of war.

The car bombing Tuesday was claimed by the newly formed militant Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistani group, which is believed to be an offshoot of the TTP.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in attacks since 2022, when TTP ended a cease-fire.

The deadliest was in January when a suicide bomber disguised as a policeman attacked a mosque in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 101 people, mostly police officers.

The increasing militant violence has further strained relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban-led administration. Pakistan often accuses the Taliban of hosting TTP leaders on Afghan territory, from where they launch their attacks.

Pakistan summoned a Taliban-appointed representative from Kabul to protest Tuesday's bombing. Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the attack and promised to investigate.

News from © The Associated Press, 2023