Pakistan Militants Kill Three in Attacks Targeting Police

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Militants on Monday killed three people in attacks targeting police in Pakistan's restive northwest, officials said.

A suicide bomber killed one policeman in Tahl, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Peshawar, while two brothers of a police station chief died in a separate attack on his home in Dera Ismail Khan.

"A group of up to six militants attacked Tahl police station and one of the attackers blew himself up when police intercepted them and responded by firing," district police chief Anwar Saeed Kundi told AFP.

"A policeman was martyred and another was wounded," he said, adding that the remaining attackers fled after the suicide bombing.

Separately militants attacked the home of a police station chief in Dera Ismail Khan, some 240 kilometers south of Peshawar, and killed his two brothers, said district police chief Sadiq Baloch.

Police officer Saifur Rehman was not at home when the attack was launched, he added.

Baloch said the attack was mounted in revenge for an operation Sunday in which one militant was killed and another wounded.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the latest attacks but Taliban militants routinely target police and other security forces.

Hours later the Pakistani military pounded suspected militant hideouts and killed 15 insurgents, according to a statement.

"Army Aviation Combat helicopters in precise strikes in Tabai area of North Waziristan Agency destroyed 10 explosive laden vehicles and 5 terrorists hideouts, 15 Terrorists were killed," the statement said.

The area is out of bounds to journalists and neither the toll nor the identities of the deceased could be independently verified.

Pakistan began a long-awaited push to clear insurgent bases from the North Waziristan tribal area in June after a bloody raid on Karachi airport ended faltering peace talks with the rebels.

North Waziristan has become a major base for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (Pakistani Taliban), which rose up against the state in 2007.

The United States has long called for action in the area against militant groups targeting NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistan's army says it has killed more than 900 militants and lost 82 soldiers since the start of the operation.

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