Gunmen attack prison in northwest Pakistan

Gunmen wearing police uniforms attacked a prison in northwest Pakistan with bombs and gunfire Monday night in an apparent attempt to free prisoners there, officials said.

The attack in the town of Dera Ismail Khan began around midnight with a huge explosion, said intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. The gunmen then detonated a series of smaller bombs to destroy the prison's boundary wall.

At least eight attackers clad in police uniforms stormed the prison once the walls fell, said the officials. Security forces engaged the attackers, who were chanting "God is great" and "Long live the Taliban."

"We are trying to bring the situation under control," said Dera Ismail Khan police chief Sohail Khalid. "The attack is still continuing."

A local resident, Sharafat Khan, said the initial blast was so loud that "it rattled every house in the neighborhood."

"I'm still hearing gunshots," Khan said.

One prison official, Gul Mohammad, said he had just walked out of the prison at the end of his shift when two gunmen armed with AK-47s shot him. There are other officials who have been wounded, he said from a hospital bed, although the casualty toll was unclear.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion will likely fall on the Pakistani Taliban and their allies. The Taliban have been waging a deadly insurgency against the government for years that has killed thousands of security personnel and civilians.

The attacks reveal the Taliban may now possess more sophisticated artillery, analysts say.

"The insurgents have the capacity to actually pull off large scale prison breaks because of the firepower they possess, in terms of small arms and light weapons, as well as heavier weapons such as AAA positioned on the backs of four wheel drive vehicles or trucks," said Aqab Malik, senior fellow on international studies at Johns Hopkins University.

But prison security in Pakistan is also a concern.

"Often, the prisons are not heavily defended from the outside, which is a cause for concern given the current climate, since their priority is to guard against prisoners from breaking out from within," Malik said.

Dera Ismail Khan is located on the edge of Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal area, the main sanctuary for Taliban and al-Qaida members.

In April 2012, Taliban armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades battled their way into a prison in the city of Bannu in northwest Pakistan, freeing close to 400 prisoners, including at least 20 described by police as "very dangerous" insurgents.

One of the members freed in that attack, Adnan Rasheed, recently gained attention by writing a letter to teenage education activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban last year in an attempt to kill her.

Rasheed said he wished the attack hadn't happened, but told Malala that she was targeted for speaking ill of the Taliban.

Contributors: Massoud Hayoun, Al Jazeera and The Associated Press