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| India-Pakistan |
| Militants torch Nato tanker in northwest Pakistan |
| 2010-02-02 |
| [Dawn] Militants armed with guns and rockets on Monday blew up a fuel tanker in northwest Pakistan carrying supplies for Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan, officials said. Two people, a driver and his helper, were wounded after about 10 militants ambushed the tanker outside Peshawar, the head of the northwestern city's administration, Sahibzada Anees, told AFP. "About 10 armed people fired at a tanker carrying petrol for Nato forces and later lobbed a rocket at the vehicle, which set alight some 78,000 litres of fuel," Anees said. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack, he said, but Taliban and members of local militant group Lashkar-i-Islam (Army of Islam) have regularly attacked Nato supply vehicles on the main route through northwest Pakistan. Lashkar-i-Islam is active in Khyber, the tribal district just outside Peshawar on the main Nato land supply route through Pakistan into Afghanistan. It was the third such attack in days after militants blew up a fuel tanker in the Khyber town of Landi Kotal on Friday and gunmen in Karachi ambushed three vehicles carrying Nato supplies a day before. About 80 per cent of supplies destined for the more than 113,000 US and Nato troops in landlocked Afghanistan pass through Pakistan. Most equipment for foreign troops is shipped through Khyber. Supplies heading to forces fighting in southern Afghanistan also pass through Pakistan's Balochistan province, which is plagued by separatist unrest. US officials consider northwest Pakistan a haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan to regroup and launch attacks on foreign troops across the border. |
| Posted by:Fred |