Suicide bombing at police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan kills at least 11

A suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at a roadside police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least 11 people and wounding about 30 others, police and rescue officials said.

The attack occurred in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for the provincial emergency service. Police said the dead and wounded were being taken to a nearby hospital, with some of the injured in critical condition.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement. Pakistan has experienced a surge in militant attacks in recent years, many of them claimed by the TTP and the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, a separatist group mainly active in neighboring Balochistan province.

The TTP is separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban, which returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021.