Deadly Taliban attack on rival Pakistan group

At least 17 people die in gun and suicide attack on house of rival group’s commander in northwest Orakzai district.

Thursday's clashes were just the latest in a long line of attacks blamed on Pakistani Taliban [AFP]

At least 17 people have been killed in northwest Pakistan after the Taliban launched an attack against a rival armed group, officials say.

A senior government official told the AFP news agency on Thursday that clashes erupted when Pakistani Taliban fighters attacked the house belonging to the commander of a pro-government group in Pakistan’s Orakzai tribal district.

A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into the compound of Maulvi Nabi Hanfi, the commander.

Hanfi was not in the compound at the time of the attack, according to Wajid Khan, a local government administrator.

Hanfi has been battling the Pakistani Taliban in the Orakzai tribal area.

A local tribal leader, Malik Nek Marjaan, said the Pakistani government had been supporting Hanfi’s group in its battle against the Pakistani Taliban.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed at least three people and wounded 12 others at a southwestern border crossing point between Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials said.

In the past week, a car bomb killed 40 people in the city of Peshwar, and there have been several Taliban attacks in the country’s remote Balochistan province.

Source: News Agencies