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Militants ambush police in restive northwest Pakistan, killing 4 officers

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Militants ambushed a police vehicle in restive northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, killing four officers and wounding two others, officials said.

The attack occurred in the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province as officers were heading to a nearby town to conduct an operation aimed at arresting a local Pakistani Taliban commander, senior police official Sajjad Khan said. Police returned fire and an exchange of gunfire was ongoing, he said.

The Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, are separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban and have been emboldened since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021. Many TTP leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge there.

Pakistani Taliban and other militants often target civilians and security forces in Pakistan, which has seen a surge in militant violence in recent years. The latest shootout comes days after a suicide bomber dispatched by an affiliate of Islamic State targeted a Shiite mosque on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, killing at least 33 worshippers.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

By WTOP Staff
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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