TIMERGARA, Pakistan, (Reuters) – Pakistan’s Taliban claimed responsibility for a bomb yesterday that killed three U.S. Special Operations soldiers near a girls’ school in northwest Pakistan and threatened more attacks on Americans.
In scenes that have become familiar in the struggle between Taliban insurgents and the state, a young girl trapped below the stones of a collapsed wall cried out for help after the blast.
Three children and a Pakistani soldier were also killed and 45 people, including 40 schoolgirls, were wounded in the attack near Swat Valley, where the government mounted a crackdown nearly a year ago that it said had cleared out Taliban militants.
“We will continue such attacks on Americans,” Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told Reuters by telephone.
U.S. defense officials in Washington described the slain soldiers as Special Operations troops attached to the U.S. training mission for Pakistan’s Frontier Corps, responsible for security in areas near the Afghan border seen as part of a global militant hub.
Two other U.S. soldiers were wounded in the attack and evacuated to Islamabad for treatment.
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, strongly condemned the attack, calling it a “great tragedy.”
The blast, triggered by a remote-controlled device, was a grim reminder of the resilience of Taliban militants determined to topple the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, a deeply unpopular pro-American leader.
“It was like Doomsday. The roof of the school fell on my child. Dead bodies of soldiers were lying there,” said Ghafur Ullah, the father of a schoolgirl wounded in the blast.
Pakistan’s Taliban have bombed markets, schools and military and police facilities despite major government security offensives that have destroyed some of their bases and U.S. drone aircraft strikes that have killed some of their leaders.
