Trucks carrying food for besieged residents come under rocket attack in NW Pakistan

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PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) — A convoy of aid trucks carrying food and other relief supplies for hundreds of thousands of besieged residents in a sectarian-violence hit district in restive northwestern Pakistan came under a rocket attack on Thursday, officials said.

One of the security officials escorting the convoy and six attackers were killed in the ensuing shootout in Bagan, a city in the Kurram district where at least 130 people have died in recent months in clashes between rival Shiite and Sunni tribes.

The mayor of Bagan, Muzammil Hussain, said the some of the trucks carrying food were looted and burned by the attackers.

There was no immediate claim for the attack, and Saeed Manan, a district administrator, said the aid convoy was turned back for security reasons. He provided no further details.

The attack came weeks after the government secured a ceasefire deal between tribal leaders.

It also came days after the first aid convoy reached Kurram, where violence flared on Nov. 21 when gunmen ambushed a convoy of vehicles and killed 52 people, mostly Shiite Muslims, in a dispute over land.

Shiite Muslims dominate parts of Kurram, although they are a minority in the rest of Pakistan, which is majority Sunni. The area has a history of sectarian conflict, with militant Sunni groups previously targeting minority Shiites.

Militants in recent years have also stepped up attacks on security forces in the northwest and elsewhere in the country, with authorities blaming the Pakistani Taliban.

In the latest security raid in Tirah Valley, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, troops killed 22 militants, the military said in a statement on Thursday.

It described the dead as “Khwarij,” a phrase the government uses for Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, and are allies of the Afghan Taliban. TTP is a separate group and has been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban came into power in Afghanistan in 2022.

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Associated Press writer Riaz Khan contributed to this story from Peshawar, Pakistan.