PESHAWAR, Pakistan, 23 September 2007 — Militants armed with assault rifles attacked a police checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan yesterday, killing one officer and kidnapping two others, officials said.

In other violence, militants fired several rockets that hit a military base and a house in Khar, in the northwestern tribal region of Bajaur. The rockets killed a soldier and two women, said Maj. Fazal Rabi, a local security official.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive-laden vehicle near a military convoy in the troubled northwestern town of Tank yesterday, wounding one soldier, said Mumtaz Zarin, an area police chief.

The attack on the police checkpoint happened in Swat, a scenic valley about 200 km north of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province where security forces are confronting militants.

Mohibullah Khan, a government official in Swat, blamed local extremists for the attack, which came a day after a roadside bomb injured the local mayor and a close relative and killed two of his guards.

Although no one claimed responsibility for the bombing, police promptly arrested three associates of pro-Taleban prayer leader Fazalullah, who has opposed the deployment of troops in Swat.

Fazalullah has reportedly asked the government to free his associates, withdraw troops from the valley and refrain from launching any operation against militants to avoid further attacks.

Swat is among Pakistan’s most famous tourist sites, but it has suffered several attacks since July when the government dispatched troops into the area in an effort to flush out militants.

Earlier this month, militants tried to blow up an ancient statue of the Buddha carved into a mountainside in the area, echoing the Taleban’s destruction of the famous Bamiyan statues in neighboring Afghanistan in 2001.

Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, has deployed about 90,000 troops in its tribal regions to trace and arrest remnants of Al-Qaeda and Taleban.

The attack on the town of Khar was the latest incident in a surge of violence since July when a pact with militants broke down and commandos stormed the Red Mosque in the capital Islamabad.

The rockets and mortar bombs hit various parts of the town and its outskirts, including a paramilitary post. Two paramilitary soldiers and six civilians, including two children, were wounded.

“Firing began after midnight and continued for more than two hours in Khar and its Mamoon district,” said a town police official who declined to be identified. Bajaur is one of several Pakistani regions on the Afghan border where US security officials say Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants are able to take refuge and plot attacks.

In March, ethnic Pashtun tribal leaders in Bajaur assured the government they would not shelter foreign fighters but intermittent attacks on security forces have continued.

In a web audio tape issued Thursday, a speaker purported to be Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden vowed to retaliate against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, his government and army for the July assault on the Red Mosque.