More than 160 US, NATO vehicles burned in Pakistan

[David]

AP


PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Militants torched 160 vehicles, including dozens of Humvees destined for U.S. and allied forces fighting in Afghanistan, in the boldest attack so far on the critical military supply line through Pakistan.

The American military said Sunday's raid on two transport terminals near the beleaguered Pakistani city of Peshawar would have "minimal" impact on anti-Taliban operations set to expand with the arrival of thousands more troops next year.

However, the attack feeds concern that insurgents are trying to choke the route through the famed Khyber Pass, which carries up to 70 percent of the supplies for Western forces in landlocked Afghanistan, and drive up the cost of the war.

It also dents faith in Pakistani authorities already under pressure from India and the U.S. to act on suspicion that the deadly terror attacks in Mumbai were orchestrated by Islamic extremists based in Pakistan.

The owner of one of the terminals hit Sunday denied government claims that security was boosted after an ambush last month in which bearded militants made off with a Humvee and later paraded it in triumph before journalists.

"We don't feel safe here at all," Kifayatullah Khan told The Associated Press. He predicted that most of his night watchmen would quit their jobs out of fear. "It is almost impossible for us to continue with this business."

The attack reduced a section of the walled Portward Logistic Terminal to a smoldering junkyard.

Khan said armed men flattened the gate before dawn with a rocket-propelled grenade, fatally shot a guard and set fire to 106 vehicles, including about 70 Humvees.

Humvees are thought to cost about $100,000 each, though the price varies widely depending on armor and other equipment, meaning Sunday's losses may exceed $10 million.

An Associated Press reporter who visited the depot saw six rows of destroyed Humvees and military trucks packed close together, some on flatbed trailers, all of them gutted and twisted by the flames.

Khan said shipping documents showed they were destined for U.S. forces and the Western-trained Afghan National Army.

The attackers fled after a brief exchange of fire with police, who arrived about 40 minutes later, he said.

Nine other guards who stood helplessly aside during the attack put the number of assailants at 300, Khan said. Police official Kashif Alam said there were only 30.

At the nearby Faisal depot, manager Shah Iran said 60 vehicles destined for Afghanistan as well as three Pakistani trucks were also burned.

The attacks were the latest in a series highlighting the vulnerability of the supply route to the spreading power of the Taliban in the border region, which is also considered a likely hiding place for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Vast quantities of supplies pass through Pakistan after being unloaded from ships at the Arabian sea port of Karachi. Some is routed through Quetta toward the Afghan city of Kandahar, but most flows through the Khyber Pass toward Kabul and the huge U.S. air base at Bagram.

The U.S. military in Afghanistan said in a statement that an unspecified number of its containers were destroyed but that their loss would have "minimal effect on our operations."

"It's militarily insignificant," U.S. spokeswoman Lt. Col. Rumi Nielsen-Green said. "You can't imagine the volume of supplies that come through there and elsewhere and other ways."

Still, NATO is seeking an alternative route through Central Asia, which it acknowledges is more expensive.

Pakistan halted traffic through the Khyber Pass for several days in November while it arranged for troops to guard the slow-moving convoys.

Shahedullah Baig, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Islamabad, insisted Sunday that the extra security covered the terminals.

"They are fully protected, but in this kind of situation such incidents happen," Baig said.

However, Khan, the depot manager, said that was untrue, and that there were only a handful of lightly armed police at the targeted terminals on Sunday afternoon.

Peshawar has seen a surge in violence in recent weeks, including the slaying of an American working on a U.S.-funded aid project. On Saturday, a car bomb detonated in a busy market area of the city, killing 29 people and injuring 100 more.

Mehmood Shah, a former chief of security in Pakistan's tribal badlands now working as a consultant, said militants appeared to have moved into the Khyber region from both sides of the border in recent months to put pressure on the supply route.

The terminals, like the route itself, could not be adequately protected by private security guards, he said.

"The government should have done it or the U.S. should have insisted that the government do it," he said.

[darrels joy]

Pakistan suspends NATO supply line Mon, 08 Dec 2008 0523 GMT

Militants destroy at least 150 trucks carrying supplies to US-led forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan suspends a supply line to NATO forces in Afghanistan after the Taliban burned into ashes about 150 NATO trucks in north-west Pakistan. The decision came just hours after a logistics terminal in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, where dozens of trucks carrying Humvees and other military vehicles were parked, was attacked by insurgents on Sunday. More than 300 Taliban militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles burned down the logitics terminal. Earlier in November Pakistan suspended traffic through the Khyber road -connecting Pakistan to Afghanistan- for several days after Taliban-linked militants hijacked more than a dozen trucks on the their way to Afghanistan. The Khyber road from Pakistan's Peshawar to Afghanistan is a major supply route for US and Western forces fighting against the Taliban insurgents. There have been a series of attacks on US and NATO convoys recently - although not on this scale. Sunday's raid is being described by many security experts in the region as the most serious of such recent attacks. It has fueled concerns that Taliban insurgents are tightening their hold in Pakistan's tribal belt and could choke the supply route. The al-Qaeda and Taliban linked militants holed up in the volatile north-west Pakistan have threatened to cut the supply line if US forces in Afghanistan continue strikes on their hideouts. The move would greatly hamper the operations of the US-led forces against the Taliban militants in Afghanistan, experts say. More than 70,000 foreign troops under the command of NATO and the US military are stationed in Afghanistan where the Taliban has made a come back since 2005. Pakistan's tribal areas are seen as a safe haven for Taliban militants, after a US-led invasion toppled their regime in Afghanistan in 2001.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id...onid=351020401

[darrels joy]

Taliban destroy 50 NATO supply trucks in third attack in Peshawar

By Bill RoggioDecember 8, 2008 12:27 PM

Taliban raiders destroyed another NATO supply column at a shipping terminal in the insurgency-wracked Northwest Frontier Province. The latest attack has caused Pakistan to shut down the NATO supply route through Peshawar.

The Taliban launched an attack on the Bilal Terminal on Peshawar's Ring Road early Monday morning Pakistan time. More than 50 vehicles laden with supplies destined for NATO were destroyed after a Taliban force stormed the compound and burned the vehicles, a senior US intelligence source told The Long War Journal. The size of the Taliban unit is unknown.

Taliban fighters also fired rocket propelled grenades at NATO convoys passing through the area, however no vehicles were reported damaged.

The attack at the Bilal Terminal is the third such strike in two days. Early Sunday, the Taliban destroyed more than 160 NATO vehicles, including an estimated 60 to 70 Humvees, in two separate attacks on the Portward Logistic Terminal and the Al Faisal Terminal in Peshawar. An estimated 200 to 300 Taliban fighters stormed the Portward terminal, while the size of the attack force at the Al Faisal Terminal is unknown.

Pakistani security forces were not protecting the Bilal Terminal despite yesterday's attacks. The Pakistani government said NATO convoys would be accompanied and protected by Pakistani military units.

A US military spokeswoman described yesterday's attacks in Peshawar as "militarily insignificant." More than 70 percent of NATO supplies destined for Afghanistan move through Peshawar.

Today's attack has prompted the Pakistani government to close down the vital NATO supply route from Peshawar to Kabul, according to Press TV.

This is the second time the Khyber Pass supply route has been closed since Nov. 11.

The Pakistani government shut down the vital Khyber Pass crossing two other times this year. The first time, the government closed the crossing to protest US airstrikes against Taliban and al Qaeda operatives sheltering in the tribal areas. The second time was in response to the poor security situation.

The Taliban have stepped up their attacks on NATO supply lines moving through Peshawar over the past several months. The Taliban are also stepping up pressure on the Peshawar. Police and government officials fear they have lost control of the security situation in the provincial capital.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archiv...stroy_50_n.php