Pak militants blow up 11 NATO tankers
Peshawar, Pakistan: Militants in northwestern Pakistan blew up at least 11 tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan Friday, and shot dead four people, police said.
The rebels struck at a terminal on the outskirts of the city of Peshawar, which runs into Pakistan's lawless tribal belt.
"More than two dozen militants entered the terminal and planted timed devices on 12 out of a total 18 fuel tankers parked at the terminal," senior police official Imtiaz Shah said.
He said 11 tankers were blown up while the device planted on one of the vehicles did not explode, and that the militants shot dead two guards and two drivers who resisted them.
"Those who attacked the terminal were all militants but we don't know yet which group they belong to," Shah said.
Another senior police official, Muhammad Ejaz, said the militants fled after blowing up the tankers.
No group has claimed responsibility but the Taliban has claimed such attacks in the past. The bulk of supplies and equipment required by foreign troops in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistan.
Pakistan shut its main northwestern border crossing to NATO supply vehicles for 11 days in September last year after a cross-border NATO helicopter assault killed two Pakistani soldiers.
Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants frequently attack across northwestern Pakistan and the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, which Washington has branded the most dangerous place in the world.
Under US pressure to crack down on extremists havens on the border, Pakistan has in the past two years stepped up military operations against largely homegrown militants in the tribal regions.
Pakistan launched its most ambitious military offensive yet against Taliban militants in South Waziristan in 2009, expanding the campaign to many of the other seven semi-autonomous tribal districts along the border.
Washington says that wiping out the militant threat in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt is vital to winning the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan and defeating Al-Qaeda.
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