Five Nato oil tankers attacked in Balochistan

QUETTA: Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan attacked five oil tankers carrying supplies to Nato troops in Afghanistan, officials said Monday.
The incident took place near the town of Mithri, some 230 kilometres southeast of Quetta, in Balochistan province which borders Iran and Afghanistan.
“Unknown gunmen fired at five Nato oil tankers. Two of them caught fire while oil leaked from three others,” district administration chief Muhammad Azam told AFP.
“There were no injuries to drivers,” he said.
Local intelligence officials confirmed the attack.
Nato trucks and oil tankers are regularly the targets of arson attacks blamed on insurgents attempting to disrupt two key supply lines that cross western Pakistan bound for foreign troops fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Most supplies and equipment required by coalition troops in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistan, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through central Asia.

NATO trucks attacked in Pakistan, driver killed

Taliban militants are determined to disrupt
the route and avenge US drone strikes in
Pakistan's tribal belt

AFP

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan attacked two NATO supply trucks early Wednesday, killing a driver and wounding two other people, officials said.

Half a dozen militants armed with assault rifles launched the attack in Landikotal, a town in Pakistan's tribal district of Khyber on the border with Afghanistan, the officials said.

Pakistani officials this month reported US drone strikes in Khyber, an apparent expansion of the covert drone programme previously confined to targeted Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders elsewhere in the tribal belt.

"The militants started firing from the hilltop. A driver of one truck was killed on the spot, while his helper and another driver of another truck were injured," local administrative official Iqbal Khatak told AFP.

Intelligence officials said the militants fled after the attack, and confirmed that the trucks were carrying goods for NATO troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan shut its main northwestern border crossing to NATO supply vehicles on September 30 for 11 days after a cross-border NATO helicopter assault killed two Pakistani soldiers.

The bulk of supplies and equipment required by foreign troops in Afghanistan is shipped through Pakistan, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through central Asia.

Scores of NATO supply vehicles were destroyed in gun and arson attacks while the border crossing was shut, with Taliban militants determined to disrupt the route and avenge US drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt.