ISLAMABAD – Suspected militants attacked and set fire to around 20 tankers carrying oil for NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan today, the third such strike inside Pakistan in as many days, police said.
The attack took place on a supply line that has been closed by Pakistani authorities in protest of a NATO helicopter strike that killed three Pakistan troops on the border last week.
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It will raise the stakes in the closure, which has exacerbated tensions between Washington and Islamabad but has been welcomed by Islamist groups opposed to Pakistan’s support of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.
Police officer Umer Hayat said two people were killed in the attack close to the capital Islamabad by what he called “terrorists.” The attackers opened fire on trucks that were parked at a poorly guarded terminal before setting them afire, he and other officers said.
The trucks were en route or waiting to travel to the Torkham border crossing along the fabled Khyber Pass, which is used to bring fuel, military vehicles, spare parts, clothing and other non-lethal supplies for foreign troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s other main route into landlocked Afghanistan, in Chaman in the southwest, has remained open.
While NATO and the United States have alternative supply routes into Afghanistan, the Pakistani ones are the cheapest and most convenient. Most of the coalition’s non-lethal supplies are transported over Pakistani soil after being unloaded at docks in Karachi, a port city in the south.
On Friday, a day after the closure of the Khyber Pass route to NATO and U.S. traffic, there were two attacks on oil tankers headed to the country.
Over the past two years, the convoys often have been attacked by militants, mostly in the northwestern border region where militants are strongest. They also have been targeted by criminals.
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