At least 6 killed in attack on Pakistan ambulance

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Suspected militants attacked an ambulance in a Pakistani tribal region on the Afghan border on Thursday killing at least six people, including two paramilitary soldiers, a government official said.

The ambulance was taking people to a health meeting when it was attacked with a rocket-propelled grenade in the Kurram tribal region, residents of the area said.

"Six people, including two paramilitary soldiers who were travelling in the ambulance have been killed and two wounded in the attack," said Zaheer-ul-Islam, the region's top political administrator.

Earlier, a doctor at a hospital in the region's main town of Parachinar, whose ambulance had been attacked, said there were reports of seven people killed, including two nurses.

Pakistan is reeling from months of violence, including a campaign of suicide bombing from Islamist militants, that has killed nearly 600 people since the start of the year.

Kurram also has a long history of violence between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim tribes. Forty people were killed in sectarian violence in December.

Meanwhile, police said they had arrested four men suspected of planning suicide attacks in the eastern city of Lahore.

At least 30 people were killed in three suicide attacks in Lahore, the capital of most populous province of Punjab, this month.

"These militants are also linked to the bombing on the FIA building," an official said, referring to one of the three attacks on the offices of a government's security agency.

The men were arrested earlier this week and police said they had recovered four suicide jackets and explosives.