16 killed in latest sectarian clash in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

At least 16 people, including three women and two children, were killed in a fresh sectarian clash in Pakistan's northwest, officials said.

Tribal groups in Pakistan's Kurram district, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, have been engaged in intermittent fighting for several months.

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

A convoy 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, the official 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.

Tribal and family feuds are common in Pakistan. However, they can be particularly protracted and violent in remote areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where communities abide by traditional tribal honor codes.

The Shia community in Pakistan, a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, has long suffered discrimination and violence.