Pak Taliban kill 9 cops in northwest

Taliban gunmen killed at least nine Pakistani policemen in twin attacks overnight in a northwest tribal district that borders Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.

Two separate groups of militants struck almost simultaneously at a police checkpoint in the Pandyali area of Mohmand district where they killed seven, and at a solar-powered tube well in Michni area of the same region where they shot dead two police who were standing guard.

"The attacks came at around 1:00 am. The militants struck suddenly and killed them without giving them a chance to fight back," Naveed Akbar, an administration official in the region, told AFP.