PESHAWAR: A stray mortar bomb smashed through a house in a village in Peshawar early Sunday, killing three children and their mother and injuring their father, police said.

The pre-dawn incident took place in Shaikhan village, a suburb of Peshawar close to the Khyber tribal district, where the military is fighting against local warlord Mangal Bagh and his Lashkar-e-Islam faction.

“The victims were asleep. A mother and her three children died on the spot,” Shafiullah Khan, a senior police officer said.

The two sisters and their brother were aged between two and nine years, Khan said.

The officer said it was not yet clear who fired the mortar bomb but Pakistani troops and Mangal Bagh’s fighters exchange fire on a daily basis.