Militants kill three more in Peshawar area

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Militants struck Pakistan's Peshawar area again Monday when a suicide bomb attack at a police checkpoint killed at least three people, police said.

In a similar attack Sunday in the city area, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber killed 12 people in Mattani village. One of the victims was Abdul Malik, the village mayor.

Monday's attack at a police checkpoint on Peshawar's Ring Road also wounded another five people, Dawn newspaper reported. Police said the attacker was riding in a rickshaw.

Geo News reported the injured included a child.

Malik had publicly opposed the Taliban, The New York Times reported. Police said Malik's death was a blow to government's efforts to fight the militants.

The Pakistani military has been involved in a major operation against terror groups in South Waziristan since Oct. 17.

Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, has been the scene of much militant violence. In the worst such attack on the city in two years, a suicide car bomb attack Oct. 28 in a crowded market area of the city killed more than 100 people, most of them women and children.