Attack Draws Attention to Quiet US Efforts in Pakistan

The US had an uncomfortable light shined on its training operations in Pakistan yesterday, when three American soldiers were killed in a Taliban suicide bombing in Lower Dir. The soldiers were part of a Special Operations team training Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps, the New York Times reports, a program both the Pakistani and US militaries have tried to keep under wraps, for fear of stoking anti-American sentiment.

The attack may have specifically targeted the Americans as “payback for the mounting frequency of the drone attacks,” says one professor of international relations in Islamabad. But that would raise the possibility that the Taliban received intelligence from inside the Frontier Corps. The soldiers had been disguised in traditional Pakistani garb, and their vehicle was in the middle of the convoy for protection.