PESHAWAR: Two people were killed and six were injured as a security forces’ convoy was ambushed by militants in Khyber tribal region’s Bara tehsil, official sources said.

A gun-battle ensued the mortar attack on the forces’ convoy and left two people dead and six injured in the tribal region’s Shalobar area. Militants fired three rockets at the forces’ convoy during routine patrolling.

Two critically injured were shifted to the Hayatabad Medical Complex (HMC), Peshawar.

Soon after the attack, security personnel rushed to the site, cordoned-off the area and started a search operation.

Khyber is on the main Nato land supply route through Pakistan into Afghanistan, where almost 150,000 foreign forces are battling to reverse an escalating Taliban insurgency, now in its ninth year.

The district neighbours the northwestern city of Peshawar, which is increasingly the target of Taliban and al Qaeda-linked bomb attacks.