Three US military personnel are among at least 10 people killed in an attack near a school in north-west Pakistan.
Police said around 70 people, including 63 school girls and a US soldier, were injured in the bombing in Lower Dir.
The soldiers were believed to have been training Pakistan’s Frontier Corps in counter-insurgency operations.
The two governments deny substantial numbers of US troops are based inside Pakistan, where public opinion is strongly opposed to their presence.
The US embassy has declined to comment on the killings.
Taliban presence
Military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told the BBC that the US personnel were attached to the Frontier Corps as military trainers.
They were thought to be travelling in a convoy that was heading to the inauguration ceremony of a newly-built girls’ school in Maidan, an area of Lower Dir district in the North West Frontier Province, which is a stronghold of Taliban militants.
RECENT ATTACKS ON FOREIGNERS
October 2009: Suicide bomber attacks UN offices in Islamabad, killing five people including a foreigner
June 2009: Foreigners among at least 18 people killed in suicide attack blamed on the Taliban on Pearl Continental hotel
March 2009: Bus carrying Sri Lankan cricket team is attacked in Lahore, injuring seven players and killing five Pakistani policemen
September 2008: Truck bomber kills at least 54 people including foreigners at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad
March 2008: A Turkish woman is killed and several foreigners are injured in a bomb attack on an Italian restaurant in Islamabad
The blast occurred near a different school in Koto, a heavily populated village along the route.
At least three of the dead were school girls, police said, adding that security guards and three local journalists were also among the wounded.
Last year, the Pakistani army carried out a major offensive to drive Taliban insurgents out of Lower Dir and the neighbouring districts of Swat and Buner.
But the Taliban are still present in remote areas and the latest attack shows that the militants remain a powerful force in the region, our correspondent says.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack and ordered an investigation, the AFP news agency reports.
The Taliban has frequently targeted girls’ schools in recent years, burning several to the ground.
Many of the girls’ school in the region that were destroyed by militants are now being rebuilt.
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