Bomb destroys NATO fuel tankers in Pakistan
Sixteen tankers carrying oil for NATO troops in Afghanistan destroyed, in latest attack aimed at disrupting supply line.
 |
| The Taliban have frequently targeted convoys carrying supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan [Reuters] |
A bomb in Pakistan’s northwest has destroyed at least 16 tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, police said, the latest in a string of attempts to disrupt supplies.
A total of 28 NATO oil tankers were parked at a terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar at the time of the explosion on Saturday, which triggered a fire amongst several of the vehicles.
“We are trying to move away other oil tankers. We are not clear whether the bomb was planted in the terminal or with a tanker,” police official Khurshid Khan told the AFP news agency from the site.
“Sixteen tankers were completely destroyed,” he said, adding that no casualties had been reported.
Mohammad Ijaz Khan, another senior police officer in Peshawar, said fire fighters were frantically trying to control the blaze.
He said three explosions were heard before the fire swept through the parked tankers.
No group has claimed responsibility, but the Taliban have in the past said that they carried out such attacks to disrupt supplies for more than 130,000 US-led international troops fighting in Afghanistan.
Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked fighters frequently launch attacks across northwestern Pakistan and the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, which Washington has branded the most dangerous place in the world.
Most supplies and equipment required by soldiers in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistan, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through Central Asia.