Pakistan bombing kills 3 American soldiers

SHAHI KOTO, Pakistan - The deaths of three American special operations soldiers in a roadside bombing in northwest Pakistan yesterday drew unwanted attention to a U.S. program of training local forces to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida - a little-publicized mission because of opposition here to American boots on Pakistani soil.

The killings were the first known U.S. military fatalities in nearly three years in Pakistan's Afghan border region, where militants are being pummeled by U.S. missile strikes and struggling to regroup following the loss of a key stronghold in a recent Pakistani army offensive.

The blast also killed three girls at a nearby school and a Pakistani paramilitary soldier traveling with the Americans. Two more U.S. soldiers were wounded, along with about 100 other people, mostly students. Several were left trapped, bloodied and screaming in the rubble.

The U.S. special envoy to Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said it did not appear the Americans were directly targeted by the blast, which he said was caused by a roadside bomb. Local officials said the device was detonated by remote control, but at least one police officer said it was a suicide attack.

Witnesses said the vehicle carrying the Americans took the brunt of the explosion as their five-car convoy traveled along the road in Lower Dir, indicating it may in fact have been directed at the Americans. That would raise the specter of a militant informant close to the training mission.

Lower Dir is a base for militants belonging to the Taliban. The Pakistani army claimed to have retaken the area last June in a widely praised offensive that also cleared the insurgents from the nearby Swat Valley.

The soldiers were part of a small group of American soldiers training members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, Pakistan's army and the U.S. Embassy said. Pakistan does not allow U.S. combat troops on its territory, making training security forces an important part of ensuring that militants are not able to use the area as a sanctuary from which to attack across the border in Afghanistan.