At least 15 people were killed and several others were wounded in an hourslong bloody clash between two tribes over the ownership rights of a coal mine in restive northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, police said Tuesday.
Armed men from the Sunny Khel and Zarghun Khel attacked each other with assault rifles over the mine's boundary fixing Monday in Dara Adam Khel, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said local police official Munawar Khan.
He said troops were summoned to control the situation when the two tribes refused to stop the fight.
Although explosions at coal mines kill scores of people every year across Pakistan, such violent clashes are rare. Coal mines are located across Pakistan, especially in the northwest and southwestern Baluchistan provinces.