Scores of militants armed with rifles and rocket launchers attacked a police checkpoint before dawn Wednesday, killing two officers and wounding five others, police said.
There was no confirmation of casualties among the militants because police said the attackers fled after the furious shootout, which took officers an hour to fend off in the suburbs of Peshawar.
The checkpost in Sarband lies next to Khyber.
Police said they repelled an initial attack at around midnight (1900 GMT Tuesday), but another group of 70 Taliban fighters armed with guns and rocket launchers again laid siege before dawn.
It took police about an hour to fend off each attack, senior police officer Mohammad Ijaz Khan said.
"Two of our policemen were martyred and five wounded," Khan said, adding that the attackers threw hand grenades and fired rockets at the checkpoint.
He said the attackers came from the direction of Khyber and fled back in the same direction after staging what appeared to be a carefully planned hit under cover of night.
"They travelled in vehicles towards the checkpost, then left the vehicles in the tribal area and reached the checkpost on foot using ill-frequented routes."
