PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Militants ambushed vehicles carrying police officers in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, triggering a gunbattle that killed at least 10 officers and 18 militants, officials said.

The attack took place in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, when police officers were returning after conducting an operation against criminals involved in illegal gold mining in an area near Kohat, local police official Faisal Khan said.

He said two senior police officers were among the 10 officers killed and an exchange of fire between security forces and the attackers continued for hours.

Hours later, the Pakistani Taliban in a statement claimed responsibility for the attack. The Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, have stepped up attacks on security forces in the region in recent months.

In a statement, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police said that 18 Khawarij, a phrase which Pakistan’s government uses for the Pakistan Taliban, were also killed in the ensuing shootout.

Police said attackers had acted in collusion with criminal elements and that the attack demonstrated links between criminal networks and the Pakistani Taliban, saying the two had joined hands at the behest of foreign powers. Police offered no evidence to back up the claims.

Police vowed to take action against those facilitating the militants and criminal networks, saying no illegal activity would be tolerated.

In Islamabad, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack and paid tribute to the officers who were “martyred” in the attack.

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 neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.

Pakistan frequently accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of sheltering TTP militants, an allegation Kabul denies. The increasing violence has further strained ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban government. Pakistan since last year has carried out strikes targeting alleged TTP hideouts inside Afghanistan and along the border.