Suspected Islamist militants set fire to an oil tanker and six trucks carrying US and NATO supplies in Pakistan’s restive northwest early yesterday, police said.
The pre-dawn assault took place at a gas station and a truckers’ inn on the outskirts of Peshawar, a key transit point for supplies for Western forces battling the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
“Around a dozen men armed with Kalashnikov rifles came to the fuel pump and burned down an oil tanker,” police officer Kifayat Khan said. “Afterwards, they approached the adjacent parking area and set fire to six trucks using petrol bombs,” the officer said.
Militants regularly target trucks loaded with US and NATO supplies in the troubled northwestern region, prompting the temporary closure of this crucial supply route.
Nearly 75 percent of the fuel and military supplies for the Western forces are transported into landlocked Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass.
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