Deadly ambush in northwest Pakistan

At least 18 people have been killed by armed men who attacked a convoy of passenger buses in northwest Pakistan. The buses were passing through the village of Char Khel in the Kurram tribal agency when a group of men, armed with assault rifles, opened fire on them on Saturday. The buses were travelling from the border town of Parachinar to Peshawar, the main city in northwest Pakistan. Local police said that all of the victims were Shia Muslims. Kurram, with a sizeable Shia population, has been the scene of considerable sectarian violence. Local administrative and intelligence officials also said that the death toll, which included two women, may yet rise. "Today's incident was a result of sectarian violence," Major Fazal-Ur-Rehman, a spokesman for the paramilitary frontier corps, said.