Gunmen armed with a rocket torched 29 NATO oil tankers in southwestern Pakistan before dawn yesterday, the latest attack on the supply line for international troops in Afghanistan since Pakistani authorities closed a key border crossing 10 days ago amid a dispute with the US.
Two responding police officers were wounded.
Local government official Abdul Mateen said the attack occurred in the area of Mithri, about 200km east of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province. He said the attackers used guns and fired a rocket to destroy the tankers.
“We are facing problems in extinguishing the fire,” he said.
Frefighters from the nearby town of Sibbi were called in to extinguish the blaze.
“It is difficult at this point of time to fix responsibility on any group. What I say right now is that those who torched the tankers were terrorists,” Mateen said, adding gunmen also fired a rocket at the burning tankers.
At least 10 gunmen were involved in the attack, police official Jamil Khan said. The oil tankers were parked near a roadside restaurant.
When police responded, the gunmen fired on them before fleeing. One officer was wounded by a bullet, while another suffered slight burns as he tried to stop the blaze, Mateen said.
“I was fast asleep and got up with sound of intense firing,” Abdul Qadir, an employee at the roadside hotel said. “When I came out, I saw a group of armed men warning other employees and vehicle drivers to stay away. The gunfire was so intense that it triggered massive fire engulfing all tankers that were parked in front of the hotel.”
Mohammed Barwan, an assistant driver for one of the burned vehicles, said: “The gunmen were armed with Kalashnikovs. We were sleeping near our trucks when these men came and ordered us to leave our vehicles.”
“I could see some of the men, who had covered their faces with masks,” he said.
Pakistan shuttered the border in Torkham on Sept. 30, following a NATO helicopter strike that killed two Pakistani border guards. Since then, there have been several attacks on supply convoys, including two in which militants torched 70 fuel tankers and killed a driver.
Nobody has so far claimed responsibility for the latest attack, although the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for previous attacks and has demanded that the government permanently bar NATO and the US from using its soil to transport supplies to Afghanistan.
The US has apologized for the cross-border helicopter strike, but Islamabad has yet to open the border crossing at Torkham.
An Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that the government has decided it will reopen the Torkham crossing, but that it had not yet decided when.
He and another security official indicated it could be as early as tomorrow.
A second border crossing at Chaman in southwest Pakistan remains open, a customs official said.
Pakistani authorities have reported 26 drone attacks since Sept. 3, which have killed more than 140 people in a region that Washington calls the global headquarters of al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth.
The strikes have been linked to a US plan to disrupt an alleged plot by extremists to launch Mumbai-style attacks in Europe.
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