Islamabad, December 29: At least one person has been killed and two others wounded as Pakistani militants attacked two NATO supply vehicles transporting fuel destined for US-led forces in Afghanistan.
A group of unidentified armed men fired shots at the two oil tankers in Landi Kotal district of the border Torkham town on Wednesday morning. A driver was killed and two others sustained injuries in the attack, local police officials told Press TV.
Gunmen also set the tankers ablaze. They were reduced to a twisted mass of metal by the fire.
Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan militants regularly attack NATO convoys in Pakistan.
The US military and NATO rely heavily on the Pakistani supply route into the landlocked Afghanistan, even more so at the present with increasing attacks against them by Taliban forces.
Supplies arrive by sea in the southern port city of Karachi, where security analysts believe most of the Afghan Taliban leadership is now hiding. From there, they must travel in long, exposed convoys through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan.
Militants in the rugged tribal area have staged spectacular attacks in recent months, torching hundreds of NATO vehicles and containers destined for US-led troops in Afghanistan.
In response, Pakistani authorities have deployed large contingents of police and military forces on all major arteries in the area to curb the attacks.
Other routes, largely through Russia and the Central Asian states, have proved too costly, both politically and economically, to be viable.
—Agencies