Rocket attack kills 6 near Hangu: Police

Mortar shells targeting army checkpoint hit civilian houses. Two women and two children are also killed.

HANGU: Rockets aimed by militants at an army checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan hit civilian houses Tuesday, killing at least six people and injuring 10.

Express 24/7 correspondent Iftikhar Firdous reported that in the Tora Ghundi area of the Hangu District at around 5pm local time, militants fired 15 mortar shells that fell on civilian houses.

The rockets were fired from an undisclosed location in the tribal region of Kurram targeting an army checkpoint of the neighbouring town of Hangu, local police official Abdul Rasheed told AFP.

He said that at least two women and two children were killed.

Hangu lies 150 kilometres south of Peshawar and has a history of sectarian clashes between the majority Sunni Muslim and minority Shiite Muslim populations.

A spokesman for the local police, Fazal Naeem, confirmed the incident and said nobody had so far claimed responsibility.

Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants attack frequently across northwestern Pakistan and the tribal belt on the Afghan border.

Under US pressure to crack down on havens along the Afghan border, Pakistan has in the past two years stepped up military operations against militants in the tribal regions.

Pakistan launched its most ambitious military offensive yet against Taliban militants in South Waziristan in 2009, expanding the campaign to many of the other seven semi-autonomous tribal districts along the border.

Washington says wiping out the militant threat in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt is vital to winning the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and defeating Al-Qaeda.