Peshawar/Islamabad::
Three US soldiers were among nine persons killed on Wednesday when a suspected suicide bomber targeted a security forces' convoy in the restive northwestern Dir area, the first such attack that has left American troops dead in Pakistan.
Three US soldiers, who were in Pakistan to train personnel of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, were killed in the blast, the Inter-Services Public Relations said.
Besides the US soldiers, four girl students, a Frontier Corps personnel and a passer-by were killed in the blast, local officials said.
Over 70 people, including one foreigner and several Pakistani security personnel, journalists and students of a girls' school, were injured.
The suspected bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the security forces convoy, which was on its way to a school-opening ceremony in Lower Dir district of North West Frontier Province.
The attack was carried out at 10.50 am local time when the convoy was passing by another state-run girls' school located a few kilometres from Tirmargarha, the main city of Dir district, witnesses said.
There was considerable confusion about the identities and professions of the dead foreigners in the initial hours after the attack.
Three US soldiers, who were in Pakistan to train personnel of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, were killed in the blast, the Inter-Services Public Relations said.
Besides the US soldiers, four girl students, a Frontier Corps personnel and a passer-by were killed in the blast, local officials said.
Over 70 people, including one foreigner and several Pakistani security personnel, journalists and students of a girls' school, were injured.
The suspected bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the security forces convoy, which was on its way to a school-opening ceremony in Lower Dir district of North West Frontier Province.
The attack was carried out at 10.50 am local time when the convoy was passing by another state-run girls' school located a few kilometres from Tirmargarha, the main city of Dir district, witnesses said.
There was considerable confusion about the identities and professions of the dead foreigners in the initial hours after the attack.
