Word: talibanize
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...killing three U.S. soldiers in a bomb attack in a remote corner of northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, Feb. 3, the Taliban scored a political jackpot. With anti-American sentiment cresting in Pakistani public opinion, the presence of the three American trainers in a convoy passing through Koto village when it was struck by a roadside bomb has set off a flurry of questions and even wild conspiracy theories about the U.S. presence in the country. The news left Islamabad in a difficult position, deepened suspicion of the U.S. and further strained an already troubled relationship. (Watch a video about bomb...
...trainers' presence had been Pakistan's worst-kept secret. They're here at the invitation of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, the front-line force in the battle against the Pakistan Taliban, to help improve its poor counterinsurgency capability. In 2008, Washington dispatched 100 military personnel to train Pakistani officers, who would in turn pass on their skills to rank-and-file soldiers; but local sensitivities precluded the Americans from being given direct access to the troops. As U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke told reporters in Washington, "There is nothing secret about their presence there...
...Wednesday, a group of these trainers was traveling in a convoy with Pakistani security forces and local journalists to a school freshly renovated at U.S. expense. They had been invited to attend its opening ceremony, a symbolically significant event in a former Taliban stronghold where girls' schools were routinely bombed. As they rolled through Koto, a roadside bomb exploded near a girls' school along the way. (See pictures of a police academy in Pakistan...
...While Taliban attacks on girls' schools have been common and helped rally Pakistani public opinion behind a military campaign to drive the movement out of areas it had taken over, there are few doubts that the U.S. personnel were the targets. (Watch a video about bomb threats at Pakistan schools...
...potent conspiracy theories have been keenly promoted by sectors of the Pakistani media and political opposition. Figuring most prominently among them has been the allegation that the U.S. security contractor Xe Services, previously known as Blackwater, has been operating with impunity throughout the country. Exploiting such sentiment, the Taliban described Wednesday's attack as "revenge for the blasts carried out by Blackwater in Pakistan." (See pictures of suicide bombings in Islamabad...