Nearly 20 killed in militant attacks in Northwest Pakistan

A total of nearly 20 police personnel and civilians have been killed in a wave of militant attacks across northwest Pakistan over the past two days, a police official said on Thursday. 

Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since 2021. The attacks come days after Afghan and Pakistani forces traded fire along their porous frontier, each side blaming the other for the flare-up in hostilities. Pakistan's military has launched repeated strikes against what it says are militant hideouts across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.