Gunmen opened fire on an ambulance at the scene of a suicide bomb attack at a roadside police checkpoint in Dera Ismail Khan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for the provincial emergency service. The attack involved an explosives-laden vehicle and resulted in at least 12 deaths and approximately 35 injuries, officials stated. Local police chief Safdar Baloch indicated that most of those killed and injured were security personnel and passersby. The explosion destroyed the checkpoint, and witnesses reported hearing gunshots following the attack. Faizi stated that gunmen opened fire on an ambulance as emergency crews transported victims to a nearby hospital, resulting in the death of one rescue worker and injuries to two others. Two women and a child were among those killed in the suicide bombing, he said. The Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistan has experienced an increase in militant violence in recent years, much of it attributed to the TTP and the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, a separatist group primarily active in neighboring Balochistan province. The TTP is distinct from but closely associated with Afghanistan’s Taliban, which regained power in 2021. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and expressed condolences to the victims’ families. Zardari described the targeting of civilians and law enforcement personnel as "highly condemnable" and called for intensified action against the Pakistani Taliban, which he accused of carrying out "heinous and brutal acts" with foreign support. Pakistani officials have repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of allowing TTP members to operate from Afghan territory and have requested that Kabul prevent cross-border attacks. Afghan authorities deny allowing their territory to be used for attacks against other countries. The bombing occurred two days after fighting along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border resulted in at least 13 Afghan Taliban fighters being killed, according to Pakistan’s government. The clash followed Pakistani strikes this week on suspected militant hideouts inside Afghanistan. The renewed hostilities threaten mediation efforts by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia aimed at achieving lasting peace between the neighboring countries. Dera Ismail Khan is near South Waziristan, a former militant stronghold where Pakistan’s military has conducted several operations in recent years. Militants frequently target security forces in the region. In December 2023, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle at the main gate of a police station in Dera Ismail Khan, killing at least 23 security personnel in one of the area’s deadliest attacks. Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, a small militant group believed to be an offshoot of the TTP, claimed responsibility. The region has seen repeated attacks by militants, reflecting ongoing instability and the challenges of maintaining security in border areas.