Pakistan Army Checkpoint Attack: 23 Killed

Militants have attacked an army checkpoint in Pakistan's northwest, killing at least 23 people - including 10 members of one family.

The Pakistan Taliban claimed responsibility, saying the attack on the isolated post at Lakki Marwat was in response to a US drone strike in neighbouring North Waziristan last month, which killed two commanders.

Officials said nine soldiers and four members of the Frontier Constabulary that polices the area died during the initial assault and subsequent crossfire.

Ten civilians - including three women and three children - were killed in a rocket attack on a house next to the camp. Twelve militants also died.

"Pakistan has been co-operating with the US in its drone strikes that killed our two senior commanders, Faisal Khan and Toofani, and the attack on military camp was the revenge of their killing," a Taliban spokesman said.

He said four suicide bombers targeted the camp in the town of Serai Naurang in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and blew themselves up. More than a dozen soldiers were killed, he added.

The raid followed a suicide bombing at a Shiite Muslim mosque in the northwest on Friday that killed 24 people.

It was the latest in a rising number of sectarian attacks in the country.

Since 2009, the military and pro-government militias have regained territory from the Taliban, who once controlled land a few hours' drive from the capital Islamabad.