The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Peshawar

Fighting between two rival groups over a business dispute Sunday left at least nine people dead and 12 others injured in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

The deaths occurred in a village in the Khyber tribal district, where the long-standing rivals fired rockets and mortars at each other, a senior government official told AFP.

The dead include three women who were killed after a mortar shell hit their home, he said, adding that the armed clash continued for more than four hours.

Lethal weapons are freely available in the rugged tribal areas of northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan and tribal clashes have claimed several lives.