The soldiers were in a convoy heading toward an
inauguration ceremony at a different girls school that had been
destroyed by the Taliban but recently rebuilt with financial support
from U.S. humanitarian sources. Local police said they believed that
the bomb was detonated by remote control.
In a statement released late Wednesday afternoon, the
said that, in addition to the three soldiers killed, two U.S. troops
were wounded. Pakistani security officials said three girls inside the
school and one Frontier Corps member were also slain.
An embassy spokesman would not identify the U.S. troops killed or injured, and declined to release any additional information.
An attack on U.S. military personnel in
is an extremely rare event, though it is not known whether the three
soldiers were the first American troops ever killed in the country. The
small number of U.S. troops assigned to
do not exercise any combat function and are largely tasked with
training and advising Pakistani security personnel in counterinsurgency
tactics.
emphasized the need to provide counterinsurgency training to the
Frontier Corps, a historically under-equipped and undertrained fighting
force seen as an invaluable anti-terrorism contingent because many of
its recruits come from the same tribal areas that militants use as
sanctuary. Last year, the Pentagon proposed spending
to equip and train Pakistani security forces over a five-year period, a
portion of which was supposed to be earmarked for the Frontier Corps.
However, the U.S. has been careful to ensure that its military personnel in
maintain a low profile, given the strong suspicions harbored by many
Pakistani news media and politicians about America’s policies toward
their country. Deep anti-American sentiment is fueled by worries among
Pakistanis that
The attack occurred in the Lower Dir region, a
mountainous, forested area that saw fierce fighting between Pakistani
troops and Taliban militants during last summer’s government offensive
to quell the insurgency in the
Lower Dir and the
were retaken by Pakistani troops and are still under government
control, but pockets of militants remain holed up in the region’s
remote hillsides and ridges.
At least 62 people were injured in the blast, most
of them girls inside the school. The explosion, which occurred in the
village of Haji Abad, trapped many of the students underneath large
mounds of rubble and debris, said
“We were all busy with classwork when a part of the roof collapsed,” said
Lower Dir’s district capital, said 10 of the people hospitalized were
in serious condition.
—
(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.
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