ISLAMABAD: At least 16 people, including three women and two children, were killed in a fresh tribal clash in Kurram district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, officials said.

Kurram, formerly a semi-autonomous area, has a history of bloody confrontations between tribes belonging to the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam that have claimed hundreds of lives over the years.

35 killed as tribal feud sparks sectarian fighting in Kurram

A convoy of Sunnis was travelling under the protection of paramilitary soldiers on Saturday when they came under attack, a senior Kurram administration official told AFP on the condition of anonymity.

“As a result, 14 people, including 3 women and 2 children, were killed, and six others were wounded,” he said.

Frontier police responded and killed two of the attackers, who were identified as Shiites, he said.

The official said the latest attack had “sectarian motives” that “have plagued the region for the past two decades”.

“Every conflict tends to take on a sectarian dimension,” he said.

Other recent clashes in July and September killed dozens of people and ended only after a jirga, or tribal council, called a ceasefire.

Officials are attempting to broker a fresh truce.