Militants Torch NATO Trucks in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (June 9) -- Gunmen torched more than 20 NATO tractor-trailers ferrying fuel and supplies into Afghanistan, killing at least seven people and leaving the charred convoy in shambles just six miles outside Pakistan's capital.

Capital city police said as many as 12 militants attacked the fleet while it was parked at a rest stop in Tarnol, using small arms and grenades to set ablaze oil tankers and military vehicles that were on their way to the Afghan border east of Peshawar. All of the attackers escaped.

Media reports differed on the number of NATO trucks involved, with Xinhua and Al-Jazeera saying more than 50 were destroyed. The Associated Press is reporting that in addition to fuel and other supplies, some of the trucks hauled trailers carrying military Humvees to troops in Afghanistan. The AP, citing police official Shah Nawaz, said the seven people killed were believed to be Pakistanis employed as drivers or assistants.

The Punjabi Taliban has taken responsibility for the attack, adding to fears among Pakistani officials that Punjab province, considered Pakistan's commercial and intellectual heartland, is increasingly vulnerable to militants. Islamabad, a virtual fortress city, has remained relatively peaceful in recent months, but the brazen midnight assault is a stark reminder that groups opposed to the war in Afghanistan can strike even minutes outside the safe zone.

NATO convoys are regularly attacked in Pakistan by various groups, including the Taliban and criminal gangs that have profited in the black market trade of military supplies intended for Western soldiers fighting in Afghanistan. In the past, most of those incidents have occurred in Peshawar, forcing NATO planners to abandon rest stops in that city.

The U.S. military and NATO rely heavily on the Pakistani supply route into landlocked Afghanistan, more so now that President Barack Obama has pumped 30,000 more troops into the country and stepped up efforts to defeat a burgeoning Taliban resistance.

Supplies arrive by sea to the southern port city of Karachi, where security analysts believe most of the Afghan Taliban leadership is now hiding. From there, they must travel in long, exposed convoys, approximately 1,100 miles north along the fabled Great Trunk Road and over the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan. The route runs through Sindh province -- notorious for its highway bandits -- and south Punjab, where the Punjabi Taliban movement is based.

Other routes, largely through Russia and the former Soviet-controlled Central Asian states, have proved too costly both politically and economically to be viable. An April 7 coup in Kyrgyzstan, for example, raised questions about the reliability of support for the airbase the U.S. operates there to supply troops and materiel to Afghanistan.

North and central Punjab had been considered the only secure sections of the journey, but now that perception will have to be re-evaluated. "Not one inch of the route is safe," one police officer said, requesting anonymity. "Security for the convoys is NATO's responsibility. Any failure rests with them."

According to the officer, guards at the Tarnol site were nonexistent at the time of the attack, possibly because NATO officials consider it a low-risk area.

But with 2010 earmarked as the make-or-break year in the eight-year-long Afghan war, supply routes will inevitably become a prime target for militants. A crucial task is making sure that needed equipment arrives intact for coalition troops in Afghanistan as major operations get under way.