Militants Kill 23 in Attack on Pakistani Army Camp

Predawn raid in northwestern part of country

Militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades, automatic rifles and suicide explosive vests launched a predawn raid on a Pakistani army camp in the country's volatile northwest Saturday, killing 23 people and injuring at least eight.

The attack took place at a camp and checkpost in Lakki Marwat, a region just east of North Waziristan, the tribal area that the Pakistani Taliban, Al Qaeda and other militant groups continue to use as a primary base of operations, according to Pakistani security officials and local authorities. The militants converged on the camp at about 3:45 a.m. and engaged in a fierce firefight that lasted more than two hours.

Thirteen of the dead were security personnel—nine army troops and four officers with the Frontier Constabulary, a security force that polices the country's northwest, said a Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on such matters. The attackers also broke into a nearby house and killed a family living there, including four men, three women and three children.