Gunmen kill six in attack on Pakistan ambulance
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — At least six people were killed Thursday when gunmen ambushed an ambulance in a northwestern Pakistani district troubled by sectarian violence, police said.
The ambulance was on its way to Peshawar from the town of Tall in Parachinar district when it came under fire, local police officer Mir Zali told AFP.
"Gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles intercepted the ambulance and opened fire. Five people were killed including a woman and the driver of the ambulance," he said adding that two others were wounded. One of the injured later died in the hospital, he said.
The dead woman was a nurse at the state run Parachinar hospital, he said.
The assailants fled in their vehicle, he said.
A security official quoting initial reports earlier said the fatalities were caused by a rocket attack.
The police officer said the attack "appears to be linked to the recent sectarian tensions in the region."
Parachinar district, which borders Afghanistan, was the scene of bloody clashes between militants from the Shiite and Sunni Muslims communities last year.
More than 60 people were killed in violence last December when Sunni and Shiite tribes took up positions on hills in villages outside Parachinar and used heavy weapons including rockets, mortars, missiles and cannons against each other.
Some 55 people were killed in similar clashes in April 2007.
Last week Pakistani authorities had to impose a curfew in the nearby town of Hangu after fresh clashes between rival Muslim sects left leaving 18 people wounded.
Shiites comprise about 20 percent of Pakistan's 160 million Sunni-dominated population but they form the majority in Parachinar, which has a population of around 70,000.
The two sides usually co-exist peacefully, but outbreaks of sectarian violence have claimed more than 4,000 lives across Pakistan since the late 1980s.
