Fifteen police officers have been killed in a car bombing and ambush of a checkpoint in north-western Pakistan, police say.

A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle loaded with explosives into the guard post in Bannu, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, late on Saturday night, which then detonated, police said.

The attacker then entered an adjoining building and fired at the remaining officers. Back-up units that rushed to the scene also came under fire.

Kenyan distance stars rule road races across continents Athletics

Pamzo dedicates coach of the month honour to late wife as APS revival gathers pace Football

A burgeoning Islamist militant alliance known as Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen, which has been linked to the Pakistani Taliban, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Images from the scene show the checkpoint had been reduced to rubble, twisted metal and debris carpeting the surrounding area.

Police said three officers were pulled from the wreckage alive, who were taken to hospital and were now in a stable condition. A search and rescue operation is taking place.

Senior Bannu police officer Sajjad Khan described his force as having "shown courage and bravery in... a difficult situation".

"This cowardly act of extremists is intolerable, and the blood of those killed will be accounted for," he said in a statement.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari offered his condolences to the families of the victims and said the nation "stood shoulder-to-shoulder with its security forces", according to a statement.

"The nefarious intentions of terrorists will be defeated," the statement added.

Attacks by various armed groups in Pakistan are relatively common.

Dozens were killed and more than 160 injured in a suicide bombing of a mosque in the capital, Islamabad, in February, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.

It came just days after a series of gun and bomb attacks in Pakistan's south-western Balochistan province, which is subject to a violent separatist movement.

Islamabad blames Afghanistan for harbouring militants who use Afghan soil to plot attacks in Pakistan, something the Afghan Taliban denies.

Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen formed in April 2025 from the alliance of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur Group (HBG), Lashkar-e-Islam and Harkat Inqilab-e-Islami Pakistan (HIIP), according to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.

It says HBG has a history of violent attacks in Bannu, while the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point in the US has said Laskar-e-Islam was allied with the Pakistani Taliban.