PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Militants ambushed a police vehicle in restive northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, killing four officers and wounding two others, officials said.

The attack occurred in the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province as officers were heading to a nearby town to conduct an operation aimed at arresting a local Pakistani Taliban commander, senior police official Sajjad Khan said. Police returned fire and an exchange of gunfire was ongoing, he said.

The Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, are separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban and have been emboldened since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021. Many TTP leaders and fighters are believed to have taken refuge there.

Pakistani Taliban and other militants often target civilians and security forces in Pakistan, which has seen a surge in militant violence in recent years. The latest shootout comes days after a suicide bomber dispatched by an affiliate of Islamic State targeted a Shiite mosque on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, killing at least 33 worshippers.