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Pakistan militants torch NATO supplies: police
Peshawar, Pakistan (AFP) Dec 7, 2008 Taliban militants launched a pre-dawn raid on NATO terminals in Pakistan Sunday, torching nearly 200 supply trucks and other vehicles destined for troops in Afghanistan, police said. About 250 heavily armed militants attacked two major terminals in the northwestern city of Peshawar, disarming security guards before dousing 89 trucks in petrol and setting them alight. One guard was killed in the audacious attack, which also destroyed two armoured vehicles, two fire engines, ammunition containers and 89 jeeps meant for international troops in Afghanistan. Police described the attack, on three different locations in the city, as the biggest of its kind so far. "This is the first time the militants came in such large number," senior police officer Abdul Qadir Qamar told AFP, calling it a "coordinated and well-planned attack." The insurgents, who had stolen the petrol from a nearby gas station, fled when police arrived at the scene, Qamar added. One security official said they had struck as police were busy investigating Friday's huge bomb blast in Peshawar that killed 34 people and wounded 120 others. "It was also a weekend and security was relatively relaxed because of Eid vacations," the official said. Pakistan celebrates the Muslim festival of Eid on Tuesday. The trucks were loaded with supplies bound for Afghanistan, where NATO forces are battling a growing Taliban insurgency. Taliban- and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have in the past attacked oil tankers and trucks on their way across from Pakistan to Afghanistan, a major supply route for international troops there. Sunday's raid came less than a week after the insurgents destroyed a dozen supply trucks in Peshawar, killing two people in the process. However, a spokesman for the US forces in Afghanistan played down the impact of Sunday's attack and said he expected Pakistan's military to increase security. "We have multiple avenues of supply lines to ensure the troops have what they need," Greg Julian told AFP. "We are looking at other means for providing security. Beside the two main roads from Quetta to Kandahar and from Peshawar to Jalalabad, we have alternate roads from the North." Police officer Qamar said the number of guards at the terminal had been increased in the wake of the earlier attack, but they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of militants. "We are preparing a new strategy to prevent such incidents in future," he added. Pakistan last month barred delivery of sealed containers and oil tankers through the Khyber Pass for a week after Taliban fighters in the rugged lawless area hijacked 15 trucks destined for Afghanistan and looted the vehicles. NATO has around 50,000 troops in Afghanistan and the pass is a lifeline for the force. Pakistan's army chief vowed last month to keep the supply line to Afghanistan open, reaffirming support for the alliance's mission there. Pakistan's tribal belt became a safe haven for hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led toppling of the hardline Taliban regime in Kabul in late 2001.
earlier related report "A missile fired by a suspected US drone killed three people outside the town of Mir Ali in Miranshah tribal district," a senior security official told AFP. Local officials confirmed the strike and said it targeted the houses of a suspected Taliban militant north of Mir Ali. Two people were also injured in the attack. Taliban militants immediately surrounded the house and did not allow locals to come near the site, witnesses said. Washington has stepped up its missile strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan in recent months despite protests by Islamabad. A missile attack late last month by a US jet killed Rashid Rauf, the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic airplane bombing plot, as well as an Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative, security officials have said. The strikes have continued despite a warning by Taliban militants based in tribal territory last month that any more would lead to reprisal attacks across Pakistan. Terror network chief Osama bin Laden is widely believed to be hiding in the border territory, although there is no clear information about his whereabouts. Two car bombings Friday killed at least 22 people in the capital city of Peshawar and the Orakzai tribal district, amid deteriorating security in the country's sensitive northwest province. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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