Bomb kills three US marines, TTP claim attack

TIMERGARA: Three American soldiers were among the eight killed in a suicide attack in the northern Lower Dir district on Wednesday, a senior security official said.

Security officials walk past the crater of a bombing and destroyed school in Timergara, the main town in Lower Dir district, located in Pakistan's restive North West Frontier Province on February 3, 2010.–Reuters Photo.

The bomber drove his explosives-laden vehicle into a convoy of the paramilitary Frontier Corps that was on its way to inaugurate a school in Kad that was blown up by the Taliban but rebuilt with money from the United States Assistance for International Development (USAID), the official said.

Two US army trainers were also amongst the 131 wounded, most of who were school children.  Two journalists accompanying the convoy were also wounded.

Operation Commander, Col. Nadeem Mirza is also reported to have sustained injuries.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan has accepted responsibility for the bombing, a private television channel said.

Earlier reports had indicated that the convoy was hit by a roadside bombing near Koto village, Hajiabad but police and security officials now say the vehicle laden with 140 kilograms of explosives had done the job.

The officials were also insisting that the foreigners killed in the bombing were US aid workers from the USAID.

Condemning what it called vicious terrorist bombing, a US Embassy statement said the Americans were US military personnel in Pakistan to conduct training at the invitation of the Pakistan Frontier Corps.

They were in Lower Dir to attend the inauguration ceremony of a school for girls that had recently been renovated with US humanitarian assistance, the statement said.

Amongst those killed were four school girls and a paramilitary soldier.   “Our teacher was teaching us Islamic education when the explosion caused the roof of our class to cave in”, Samina, a 5th grade student of the school said.

The official said that the American soldiers were trainers training the Dir Scouts of the Frontier Corps in Dir.

“They usually wore Pakistani dress, shalwar qameez, and Chitrali caps to conceal their identity”, the official said.

The Americans were traveling in an armoured vehicle with electronic jammers.

“A remote controlled explosives device would not have done the damage. This was clearly a targeted hit. The bomber targeted their vehicle”, the official said, requesting he not be named.

The killed US soldiers have been identified as Sgt John, Sgt Sikle and Sgt Andrew. A US army major identified as Maj. Roth has been critically wounded.

The bodies of the slain US soldiers and wounded paramilitary personnel were later evacuated to Peshawar by helicopters.

“It was a huge blast”, local journalist, Haroon Rashid, who accompanied the convoy and was also wounded in the explosion,” he told Dawn.

“The army has sealed off the area and no one is being allowed to move.  I am here with wounds on my leg and arms and am waiting to be evacuated”, he said on phone from the scene of the occurrence.

The security official said the group was on its way to inaugurate a primary school in Kad, Lower Dir that had been blown up by militants but was rebuilt by USAID.

The security forces immediately sealed off the area and began evacuating the dead and wounded.

Administrative head of the District Headquarters Hospital in Lower Dir, Dr. Wakil Mohammad said that a total of 122 school children were brought to the hospital for medical treatment.

The bomb also damaged an adjoining girls’ middle school. The damage to the two schools would affect education of nearly six hundred children.

The security forces cordoned off the area and launched a search operation. The official said that twenty-two people had been rounded up for questioning.

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