The attack, which occurred on Wednesday in the former Pakistani Taliban stronghold of Lower Dir, came as US intelligence officials said they believe the militant group’s chief recently died from injuries sustained in a US drone strike in mid-January. Police official Naeem Khan said Pakistani authorities are investigating whether the bomber knew the soldiers, who were training Pakistani forces to fight the Taliban and al-Qaeda, would be passing through Shahi Koto town where the attack occurred and which vehicle to target out of the five-car convoy.“We launched a massive search in the area yesterday, and now about 35 suspects are in our custody and we are questioning them in an effort to trace those who orchestrated the suicide attack,” Khan told The Associated Press. “God willing, we will capture those responsible for this carnage.”
The blast also killed three girls at a nearby school and a Pakistani paramilitary soldier traveling with the Americans. Two more US soldiers were wounded, along with about 100 other people, mostly students at the school. Several were left trapped, bloodied and screaming in the rubble.
US officials said on Wednesday it did not appear the soldiers were specifically targeted in the attack, and initial reports indicated the blast was caused by a roadside bomb. The latest information raises the specter of a militant informant close to the training mission. The soldiers’ deaths were the first known US military fatalities in nearly three years in Pakistan’s Afghan border region, drawing attention to a training program officials rarely discuss because of opposition here to American boots on Pakistani soil.
Unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, Pakistan does not allow US combat troops on its territory, making training local security forces an important part of ensuring that militants are not able to use the area as a sanctuary from which to attack American and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan.
The US has also relied on drone missile strikes to target militants in Pakistan’s semiautonomous tribal area near the Afghan border. A senior intelligence official said on Wednesday that US counterterrorism officials believe Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud is dead following one such strike last month.
