The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Miranshah

At least six policemen and three militants were killed in gunfights in northwest Pakistan where the military is hunting Al-Qaeda linked Taliban, police said Sunday.

Three policemen were killed and five others injured on Sunday when local Taliban fired rockets at a police pickup near the northwestern town of Lakki Marwat, senior police official Mohammad Alim Shinwari told AFP.

Separately, three policemen and three Taliban were killed and 12 others injured after insurgents attacked a checkpoint in the northwestern town of Bannu late Sunday, Shinwari said.

The incident took place near a police station at Bahram bridge and officers immediately launched a search of the area, he added. Bannu is the main base of Pakistani military fighting Al-Qaeda linked militants in the neighbouring Waziristan tribal district which borders Afghanistan.

Pakistan's tribal belt became a safe haven for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led toppling of the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001 and have since set up training camps.