Militants attack check post

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 18 (UPI) -- About 100 militants attacked a northwest Pakistani check post near Peshawar Wednesday with casualties reported, authorities said.

The early morning attack occurred at the Manzor Shaheed check post near the Khyber tribal area, China's Xinhua news agency reported quoting a local television channel.

There was an exchange of fire with the security forces following the attack in which at least 20 militants died and several more were injured, the report said. At least two security personnel also died, the report said.

Other details of the attack were not immediately available.

Various militant groups have vowed to avenge the May 2 death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. security during a raid on his compound in the Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad.

A double suicide bomb attack last week, claimed by the Taliban, killed 80 people at a paramilitary training center in Charsadda in northwest Pakistan.

On Tuesday, Pakistani security forces said they killed five militants, all Chechens, in an exchange of fire near a paramilitary check post outside Quetta, capital of Balochistan province near the border with Afghanistan. The militants killed included three women and two men, the report said.