Malala Yousufzai,
Malala Yousufzai,Reuters

Surgeons have removed a bullet from the head of a 14-year-old girl, a day after she was shot by Taliban gunmen in north-western Pakistan's Swat Valley, the BBC reported.

Malala Yousafzai, known for championing the education of girls and speaking out against atrocities committed by the Taliban, was flown to a military hospital in Peshawar after being shot in the head by a gunman in Mingora, a city in northwest Pakistan, officials said.

She was nominated last year for the International Children’s Peace Prize.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, calling her work "obscenity."

"This was a new chapter of obscenity, and we have to finish this chapter," said Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan by telephone, according to Fox news. "We have carried out this attack."

Taliban gunmen reportedly stopped a van as it was taking Yousafzai and two other girls home from school. The attackers then opened fire, wounding the girls before the van's driver was able to speed away. The other two girls' injuries were not considered life-threatening.

In the past, the Taliban has threatened Yousafzai and her family for her outspoken beliefs and activism. When she was only 11 years old, she began writing a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC's Urdu service about life under Taliban occupation. After the Taliban was ousted from her hometown in northwest Pakistan’s Swat Valley in the summer of 2009, she began speaking out publicly about the terrorist group and the need for girls' education.