Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Militants attack NATO terminal in Pakistan: police

Dozens of Taliban fighters attacked a terminal for NATO supply trucks outside Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar Wednesday, destroying eight vehicles, police said.

"Around 40-50 armed militants attacked the depot before dawn. They lobbed several petrol bombs and fled," police officer Mohammad Ehsanullah said.

Two trucks loaded with food for landlocked Afghanistan were gutted in the attack, said senior police officer Abdul Ghafoor.

The supplies were being shipped under a transit trade pact between the two countries. Six containers were also destroyed but they were empty, he said.

"No NATO supply truck was hit," Ghafoor said.

The militants fled when police reached the area. Firefighters struggled for two hours to bring the blaze under control, he said.

Taliban militants routinely attack trucks carrying supplies for US and NATO-led troops fighting a Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan.

The bulk of supplies and equipment required by those foreign troops across the border is shipped through northwest Pakistan's tribal region of Khyber.

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