PESHAWAR, Feb 22: Rockets apparently aimed by militants at an army checkpoint in north-western parts of the country hit houses on Tuesday, killing two women and two children, police said.

“Militants fired six rockets from an undisclosed location in the tribal region of Kurram targeting an army checkpoint of the neighbouring town of Hangu, which struck civilian houses,” local police official Abdul Rasheed said.

In addition to the two women and two children killed, he said seven other people were wounded when the rockets hit the two houses in Targhundai, a village near the town of Hangu.

A spokesman for the local police, Fazal Naeem, confirmed the incident and said nobody had so far claimed responsibility.

Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked militants attack frequently across north-western Pakistan and the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border.

Under US pressure to crack down on so-called militant safe havens along the Afghan border, Pakistan has in the past two years stepped up military operations against largely home-grown extremists in the tribal regions.

Pakistan launched its most ambitious military offensive yet against Taliban militants in South Waziristan in 2009, expanding the campaign to many of the other seven semi-autonomous tribal districts along the border.—AFP