</s>PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Two gunmen on a motorcycle killed three soldiers Sunday near the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said.

The gunmen struck in Garhi Sohbat Khan on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, attacking a private vehicle carrying the three soldiers.

The attackers used handguns to target the soldiers, who were returning from a military dairy farm after fetching milk for officers, Khan said.

No one claimed responsibility, but Islamic militants have been involved in multiple such attacks in and around the provincial capital surrounded by lawless tribal regions.

Dad Mohammad, another area police officer, said the incident was second of the nature in this area - which is close to Mohmand tribal region. Last week gunmen shot and killed a prominent physician who was instrumental in anti-polio campaigns, he said.

The Mohmand tribal region had been a longtime hotbed for Islamic militants and the Pakistani army has carried out several operations to eliminate militant hideouts.

But the militants have repeatedly struck back. Last Friday, a suicide bomber killed 36 worshippers during Friday prayers in the Ambar area of Mohmand. Jamaatul Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Taliban, claimed responsibility for that attack.</s>PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Two gunmen on a motorcycle killed three soldiers Sunday near the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said.

The gunmen struck in Garhi Sohbat Khan on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, attacking a private vehicle carrying the three soldiers.

The attackers used handguns to target the soldiers, who were returning from a military dairy farm after fetching milk for officers, Khan said.

No one claimed responsibility, but Islamic militants have been involved in multiple such attacks in and around the provincial capital surrounded by lawless tribal regions.

Dad Mohammad, another area police officer, said the incident was second of the nature in this area — which is close to Mohmand tribal region. Last week gunmen shot and killed a prominent physician who was instrumental in anti-polio campaigns, he said.

The Mohmand tribal region had been a longtime hotbed for Islamic militants and the Pakistani army has carried out several operations to eliminate militant hideouts.

But the militants have repeatedly struck back. Last Friday, a suicide bomber killed 36 worshippers during Friday prayers in the Ambar area of Mohmand. Jamaatul Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Taliban, claimed responsibility for that attack.</s>PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Two gunmen on a motorcycle killed three soldiers Sunday near the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said.

The gunmen struck in Garhi Sohbat Khan on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, attacking a private vehicle carrying the three soldiers.

The attackers used handguns to target the soldiers, who were returning from a military dairy farm after fetching milk for officers, Khan said.

No one claimed responsibility, but Islamic militants have been involved in multiple such attacks in and around the provincial capital surrounded by lawless tribal regions.

Dad Mohammad, another area police officer, said the incident was second of the nature in this area — which is close to Mohmand tribal region. Last week gunmen shot and killed a prominent physician who was instrumental in anti-polio campaigns, he said.

The Mohmand tribal region had been a longtime hotbed for Islamic militants and the Pakistani army has carried out several operations to eliminate militant hideouts.

But the militants have repeatedly struck back. Last Friday, a suicide bomber killed 36 worshippers during Friday prayers in the Ambar area of Mohmand. Jamaatul Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Taliban, claimed responsibility for that attack.</s>PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police say unknown gunmen have killed three soldiers in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Police officer Shaukat Khan said gunmen struck Sunday morning, attacking a private vehicle carrying the three soldiers. Khan said attackers fled the scene on a motorcycle and a search operation was underway.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack but Islamic militants have been involved in multipole such attacks in and around the provincial capital surrounded by lawless tribal regions.</s>PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Two gunmen on a motorcycle killed three soldiers Sunday near the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said.

The gunmen struck in Garhi Sohbat Khan on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, attacking a private vehicle carrying the three soldiers, said Shaukat Khan, a senior police officer.

The attackers used handguns to target the soldiers, who were returning from a military dairy farm after fetching milk for officers, Khan said.

Jamaatul Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack. Ahsanullah Ahsan, spokesman for the group, said in a statement that the three soldiers were targeted by the group to avenge the “military’s animosity with mosques.”

Islamic militants have been involved in multiple such attacks in and around the provincial capital surrounded by lawless tribal regions.

Dad Mohammad, another area police officer, said the incident was second such attack in this area — which is close to Mohmand tribal region. Last week gunmen shot and killed a prominent physician who was instrumental in anti-polio campaigns, he said.

The Mohmand tribal region had been a longtime hotbed for Islamic militants and the Pakistani army has carried out several operations to eliminate militant hideouts.

But the militants have repeatedly struck back. Last Friday, a suicide bomber killed 36 worshippers in a mosque during weekly prayers in the Ambar area of Mohmand. Jamaatul Ahrar claimed responsibility for that attack too.

Associated Press writer Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan contributed to this report.</s>Islamic State, Pakistani Taliban faction say kill three soldiers in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Three Pakistani soldiers were killed in an ambush in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Sunday, militants said, in an attack for which both Islamic State and a Pakistani Taliban faction claimed responsibility.

Militants said they ambushed an unmarked vehicle ferrying soldiers on Sunday morning near the congested Daudzai area of Peshawar. Military sources confirmed the attack but said the killed men were army employees and not soldiers.

The Pakistan army often uses unmarked vehicles for transportation of soldiers and other employees in volatile areas around Peshawar to avoid being identified and attacked.

"They were travelling in a civil van when unknown armed men opened fire at them," said a security official who declined to be named. "Three of them died on the spot."

Pakistan's military this month declared that it had foiled Islamic State's attempts to establish operations in the country. But the group's Amaq news agency said Islamic State was behind the ambush, also claimed by Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, an offshoot of the Islamist militant Pakistani Taliban group.

Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, which carried out the Easter Sunday bombing in Lahore in which 70 people were killed, at one time swore fealty to Islamic State's Middle East leadership, but later switched back to the Taliban.

The two groups also both claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a hospital in the Pakistani city of Quetta that killed 74 people last month.

Pakistan's military said on Sept. 1 it had arrested more than 300 Islamic State militants and sympathizers, thwarting the ultra-hardline group's attempts to expand there.

But concern has been growing that Islamic State - which controls parts of Iraq and Syria and is known for especially brutal treatment of religious minorities - might replicate their model in Pakistan, especially after Islamic State loyalists seized small pieces of territory in neighboring Afghanistan.

On Friday, Pakistani authorities said they arrested four Islamic State militants plotting attacks in the city of Lahore. The four men had 1.6 kg (3.5 lb) of explosives as well as fuses and detonators, officials said.

Most Islamic State recruits in the region are believed to be Pakistani or Afghan defectors from other Islamist movements.

Pakistan is home to several militant groups including the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, al Qaeda and the Haqqani network, giving Islamic State both a rich pool of potential recruits but also fierce competition.

Islamic State last year declared Afghanistan and Pakistan as the state of "Khorasan", part of its self-declared global caliphate, and appointed longtime militant Hafiz Saeed Khan as its regional leader.

A U.S. drone strike killed Khan last month in eastern Afghanistan. (Writing by Mehreen Zahra-Malik; editing by Drazen Jorgic and Ros Russell)</s>PESHAWAR: At least three policemen were killed by unknown gunmen when their vehicle was ambushed here Sunday, police said.

The police van was targetted by three armed assailants in Khazana area, an outskirt of Peshawar District.

The gunmen fired 12 bullets from 9 mm rifle killing the three policemen and escaped from the scene.
Two gunmen kill three Pakistani Army soldiers near the city of Peshawar.