Taliban Claims Responsibility For Pakistan Courthouse Attack

Policemen stand guard at a courthouse after an attack by suicide bombers in Charsadda on February 21.

Taliban suicide attackers have struck a courthouse in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least five people and injuring as many as 15.

The February 21 incident occurred at a region court in the town of Tangi in Charsadda. The rural district abuts Peshawar, capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of the Taliban issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, in which authorities said three armed militants wearing suicide vests attempted to enter the court building.

Police killed two of the attackers in a gun battle, while the third managed to detonate his suicide vest at the entrance to the building.

The attack was the latest in a spate of similar assaults across Pakistan that have left more than 100 people dead over the last week. On February 16, a militant detonated explosives in a Sufi shrine in Sindh province, killing 90 people in an attack claimed by the extremist group Islamic State (IS).

With reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal, AP, dpa, and Reuters