Suspected militants attacked a Pakistan transport terminal used to supply NATO and US troops in Afghanistan, killing a guard and burning more than 160 vehicles yesterday.
The attack took place in the early hours at Al-Faisal terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar city, where trucks carrying food and military supplies for Western troops are parked at night.
“A group of insurgents raided the terminal at around 3am and fired rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles at the trucks and container, setting more than 60 of them on fire,” police officer Fazal Mohammad Khan said.
Pakistani authorities have asked hauling contractors to make the journey through Khyber Pass, located 18km from Peshawar, only during daytime and under security cover.
The 35km mountain track passing through the lawless tribal region serves as a major supply route to landlocked Afghanistan.
The assault was the boldest yet on trucks carrying critical supplies to foreign troops in Afghanistan, feeding concern that Taliban militants could cut or seriously disrupt the route through the famed Khyber Pass.
Up to 75 percent of the supplies for Western forces in the landlocked country pass through Pakistan after being unloaded from ships at the Arabian Sea port of Karachi.
About 30 assailants armed with guns and rockets attacked the terminal before dawn yesterday, police official Kashif Alam said.
Alam said 62 vehicles were destroyed.
But terminal manager Kifayatullah Khan said 106 vehicles were destroyed, including 62 that were carrying Humvees. The other torched trucks were carrying sealed shipping containers or other vehicles, including fire engines and dump trucks, Khan said.
He said his terminal handled only trucks carrying military supplies for Afghanistan.
A series of recent attacks on trucks between Peshawar and the Afghan border has highlighted the route’s vulnerability to the spreading power of Taliban-led militants in the border region.
Last week, suspected insurgents attacked another terminal near Peshawar and burned 12 trucks loaded with NATO supplies, including several Humvees. Two guards were shot dead.
NATO and US officials have said that losses along the supply route are not affecting their operations in Afghanistan. Still, NATO is seeking to open alternative routes through Central Asia.
Rising violence and instability in Pakistan’s northwest coincides with serious tensions with its eastern neighbor India in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
New Delhi blames last month’s attacks, which killed 171 people, on an Islamic militant group fighting Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region, heightening tension between the nuclear-armed neighbors that could distract Pakistan from its role in helping the US fight terrorism.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS