Pakistani security forces raid a militant hideout in the northwest and 10 insurgents are killed

Police say Pakistani security forces have raided a militant hideout in northwest Pakistan, sparking an hourslong shootout on Monday in which at least 10 insurgents were killed and several others were wounded

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in northwest Pakistan on Monday, sparking an hourslong shootout in which at least 10 insurgents were killed and several others were wounded, police said.

The raid occurred in Tirah, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, police official Azmat Khan said. He said insurgents were members of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Islam militant group.

It was not immediately clear whether there were casualties among the security forces.

Also on Monday, insurgents raided a police station in northwestern Bannu district and kidnapped seven officers, district police chief Ziauddin Ahmed said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the abduction, but suspicion was likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, who often target security forces. The TTP is outlawed in Pakistan and is a close ally of the Afghan Taliban who control neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistan in recent months has witnessed a surge in militant violence, most blamed on TTP and separatists in southwestern Balochistan province, where the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army group has waged a low-scale insurgency.