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India-Pakistan
Gunmen attack APCs in Karachi bound for Afghanistan
2008-08-26
(AKI) - Militants in the Pakistani port city of Karachi set fire to two armoured personnel carriers bound for US forces in Afghanistan, police said on Monday.

Adnkronos International (AKI) recently reported that Islamist militants had threatened to start attacking supplies bound for foreign forces in Afghanistan after the largest-ever shipment of NATO arms and military supplies arrived in the port.

The shipment of NATO arms and military supplies arrived in Karachi in early August and was to be moved through Pakistan to Afghanistan amid growing concern about the threat from militants in the border region.

Five hundred and thirty containers carrying missiles, armoured personnel vehicles, aircraft engines and several other items were ready for shipment.

On Monday around two dozen gunmen reportedly attacked supplies on a truck that had been parked near a main road since 18 August because of a strike by truck drivers over rising fuel prices.

Officials previously told AKI's Pakistani correspondent, Syed Saleem Shahzad, they were concerned about the fate of the supplies, particularly after the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf and continuing conflict in the border region.

"The Taliban-led insurgency has now spread all over the NWFP (North-West Frontier Province) and one wonders who is to arrange the safe transit," an official at the Karachi Port Trust told Adnkronos International (AKI) on condition of anonymity.

"Pakistan needs to send them (containers) to Kabul and Kandahar through two routes - one through the Torkham border takes 36 hours from Karachi and the second route to the Chaman border takes around 18 hours from Karachi.

"Both routes are insecure as the Taliban has recently looted and destroyed many container convoys."
Posted by:Fred

#6  Exactly - its the same as strategic interdiction bombing.
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-08-26 21:10  

#5  OP: Brave, brave Lions of Islam, attacking an unmanned APC. They all deserve a medal.

Can't fault them for doing it. Interdiction is how you win wars.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2008-08-26 12:57  

#4  OS, NOBODY's providing security, which is the problem.

Brave, brave Lions of Islam, attacking an unmanned APC. They all deserve a medal.

(do I actually need a /sarc for this?)
Posted by: Old Patriot   2008-08-26 10:51  

#3  We shoudl probably demand that WE provide secruity details for these shipments, since the Paki military is proving to be incompetent and corrupt.
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-08-26 09:13  

#2  I don't like this
Posted by: 3dc   2008-08-26 03:57  

#1  It wouldn't be happening if the government didn't want it to happen.
Posted by: gromky   2008-08-26 03:38  

00:00