Taliban claims attack on fuel tankers
Source: Agencies |
October 5, 2010, Tuesday
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THE Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility yesterday for a pre-dawn attack on tankers carrying fuel to Afghanistan for US and other NATO forces, which had been left vulnerable on the roadside after Pakistan closed a key border crossing.
About a dozen militants sprayed the vehicles with automatic gunfire while they were parked at a truck stop on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad. Some 20 trucks went up in flames and four people were killed and seven injured, authorities said.
Hours later, gunmen attacked two other trucks carrying NATO supplies in the Kalat district of southwest Pakistan, killing one driver.
There have been four attacks since Pakistan last Thursday closed its main border crossing into Afghanistan to NATO convoys in apparent reaction to alleged NATO incursions, including a helicopter attack that killed three Pakistani soldiers.
Traffic has since been backing up at points along the route from Karachi to the crossing at Torkham - where scores of trucks remain stranded in the volatile Khyber Pass.
In Brussels, NATO's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen apologized to Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi for the helicopter attack, saying it was "unintended" and that he hoped the border crossing would be opened again soon. "A joint investigation is under way," Fogh Rasmussen said.
Although Pakistan says the Torkham blockade will soon be lifted, the latest attacks seemed certain to raise the stakes in the dispute, which has exacerbated tensions between Washington and Islamabad. Convoys crossing from Pakistan bring non-lethal supplies.
"We are trying to protect the places where are vehicles have accumulated, and we are not dispatching any more trucks from Karachi," said Shakir Khan Afridi, president of the Khyber Transport Association, which represents 7,000 truckers.
In claiming responsibility for the first attack, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq said a new wing of the group had been created to strike the convoys and that the attacks "would continue until the supplies are completely stopped."
About 150 vehicles are backed up at the Torkham border crossing, with hundreds more nearby. Torkham lies 200 kilometers west of Islamabad.
Trucker Kalam Khan, who has been waiting for five days on his flatbed truck, said drivers are in constant fear. "If vehicles are not safe in Islamabad, we could be attacked any time," he said.
On Sunday, Pakistan's ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, said the crossing would soon reopen.
About a dozen militants sprayed the vehicles with automatic gunfire while they were parked at a truck stop on the outskirts of the capital, Islamabad. Some 20 trucks went up in flames and four people were killed and seven injured, authorities said.
Hours later, gunmen attacked two other trucks carrying NATO supplies in the Kalat district of southwest Pakistan, killing one driver.
There have been four attacks since Pakistan last Thursday closed its main border crossing into Afghanistan to NATO convoys in apparent reaction to alleged NATO incursions, including a helicopter attack that killed three Pakistani soldiers.
Traffic has since been backing up at points along the route from Karachi to the crossing at Torkham - where scores of trucks remain stranded in the volatile Khyber Pass.
In Brussels, NATO's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen apologized to Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi for the helicopter attack, saying it was "unintended" and that he hoped the border crossing would be opened again soon. "A joint investigation is under way," Fogh Rasmussen said.
Although Pakistan says the Torkham blockade will soon be lifted, the latest attacks seemed certain to raise the stakes in the dispute, which has exacerbated tensions between Washington and Islamabad. Convoys crossing from Pakistan bring non-lethal supplies.
"We are trying to protect the places where are vehicles have accumulated, and we are not dispatching any more trucks from Karachi," said Shakir Khan Afridi, president of the Khyber Transport Association, which represents 7,000 truckers.
In claiming responsibility for the first attack, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq said a new wing of the group had been created to strike the convoys and that the attacks "would continue until the supplies are completely stopped."
About 150 vehicles are backed up at the Torkham border crossing, with hundreds more nearby. Torkham lies 200 kilometers west of Islamabad.
Trucker Kalam Khan, who has been waiting for five days on his flatbed truck, said drivers are in constant fear. "If vehicles are not safe in Islamabad, we could be attacked any time," he said.
On Sunday, Pakistan's ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, said the crossing would soon reopen.
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