
At least five people have been killed after militants armed with assault rifles ambushed a convoy of civilian vehicles in a tribal area of Pakistan.
Several other people were wounded in the attack in the north west, where the army has carried out operations against Islamist militants.
The convoy, which was being escorted by security forces, was attacked in Char Khel village in the Kurram region.
Unconfirmed reports put the death toll from Saturday's attack as high as 16.
The convoy was heading to the main regional city of Peshawar when it was ambushed.
Naeemullah Jan, a senior government official, told Reuters news agency: "Five people have been killed in the attack on the convoy, which was being escorted by our forces to Peshawar, and several wounded are in critical condition."
Kurram has been hit by scores of attacks, many of which are robberies and kidnappings for ransom, in the past three years.
The army has reportedly killed nearly 100 militants in operations in the region, close to the Afghan border, in recent months.
Several major suicide attacks have hit Pakistan in recent weeks. An attack on Thursday killed at least five people in the Swat Valley, also in the country's north-west.
Earlier this month, a pair of suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Mohmand tribal region, killing more than 100 people.
Islamabad is under US pressure to crack down on the unrest in the border region.
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