Gunmen have attacked police officers conducting an operation against illegal gold mining in northwestern Pakistan, with 10 officers and 18 fighters killed in the ensuing violence.

A statement by provincial police in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said officers were returning from a mine in the Gumbat area of Kohat district on Wednesday when armed men opened fire on them.

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In addition to the dozens killed, 12 police personnel were wounded, the statement said.

Hours later, the Pakistani Taliban issued a statement claiming the attack.

Earlier, a senior administrative official in Kohat told the AFP news agency that fighters had set two police vehicles on fire during the assault, while two other police vehicles and one private vehicle were missing.

Another senior administrative official in the Orakzai area of Kohat said that 10 fighters belonging to the Pakistan Taliban were killed during a separate operation in the district.

A large quantity of weapons was also recovered from the fighters, the official said.

A spokesman for a local emergency service said earlier on Wednesday that there had been a “firing incident involving police personnel” in Kohat district, adding that rescue workers were treating a dozen wounded officers.

Security forces are battling intensifying violence in the border province that they say emanates from Afghanistan, an accusation the Taliban government in Kabul rejects.

Ongoing attacks

The Pakistan Taliban, formerly known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, have stepped up attacks on security forces in the region in recent months.

Pakistan has seen a surge in violence in recent years, much of it blamed on the TTP.

The group is separate from but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban, who returned to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been fraught since the Afghan Taliban retook power, and worsened after deadly border clashes in October last year that led to near-total closure of the border.

Pakistan frequently accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of sheltering TTP fighters, an allegation Kabul denies.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in fighting between the two countries in the last year, according to figures from the United Nations mission in Afghanistan.