.Taliban ambushes threaten Nato's vital logistics route into Afghanistan
Using age-old guerrilla tactics, they hijack or destroy the ponderous lorries creeping up the narrow road and sell the contents in local bazaars to finance new raids.
A prominent, independent tribesman from the Khyber region, who cannot be named for his own safety, told The Sunday Telegraph that the Pakistani army was close to losing control of the pass.
"You see vehicles destroyed by rockets on the side of the road," he said. "The wreckage isn't there for long, the army soon removes it to make it look as if they are still in control of the road. But they are on the verge of losing it."
The number of attacks on supply convoys is a military secret, but the tribesman claimed they were occurring almost daily. Earlier this year 42 oil tankers were destroyed in one attack.
Drivers are paid high wages to risk their lives. One driver, Momin Khan Darwish, said: "If there is a more dangerous job in Pakistan, I would like to know what it is." Others describe finding threatening letters from the Taliban pinned to their lorries.
About 70 per cent of the fuel, clothes and food needed by Nato's mission is transported in civilian Pakistani trucks through the Khyber Pass, a vulnerable point in a long route to Kabul which begins in the Pakistani port of Karachi.
The route is too risky to transport weapons and munitions, and most British supplies travel on the southern route from Quetta to Helmand.
There were hopes that Russia would ease Nato's difficulties by granting access through its territory later this year, but that is now in doubt after the war in Georgia.
"If Nato lost control of the pass, there is no doubt that other routes would be found," said Matthew Clements, the Eurasia analyst for Jane's Country Risk. "But they are more difficult and expensive. It would interfere with the smooth running of the operation."
Brigadier-General Richard Blanchett, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, acknowledged the raids, but denied they were affecting the mission. "There is certainly some enemy action on this supply route," he said. "But it has no impact on our mission in Afghanistan."
However, the tribesman said things were much worse now than in the past. "You used to see a lot of oil tankers that were damaged but the chassis and the engine were fine," he said. "Now it's different."
The lorries' cargoes are then sold in Peshawar's thieves' bazaars, where looted US Army and Marines Corps uniforms and equipment are openly displayed for sale.
Before being shooed away by an angry stallholder, The Sunday Telegraph saw a uniform with the surname "Franklin" emblazoned on the right breast and a book called "On Killing" with a photo of a soldier in Iraq on the cover.
Maps, entrenching tools, US military rations packs and even US medals turn up in stalls set up in a labyrinthine warren where the road heads out of Peshawar city and into a tribal area. US Army helmets are popular with motorcyclists and cricketers.
Farzana Raja, a spokeswoman for Pakistan's interior ministry, insisted that security forces will hold the Khyber Pass. She said: "The government is aware of these attacks on convoys in the Khyber region and it is one of the reasons why we have had a major military operation there in the past few weeks."
The Taliban's tactics are similar to those used by Mujahideen guerrillas in the 1980s who crippled the Soviet Army by attacking supply convoys.
The militants carrying out the attacks are a rag-tag bunch of heavily-armed warlords waiting outside Peshawar's city gates. Most have only recently begun calling themselves Taliban.
Pakistani journalists in Peshawar say the private armies are well-financed and armed, and will receive a fresh infusion of money next month when donations rise during Ramadan.
The Pakistan Army meanwhile is suffering from low morale and high desertion rates, especially because after years of being indoctrinated to fight Hindu Indian soldiers they are now being sent against fellow Muslims in a bloody war that looks unwinnable to many Pakistanis.
telegraph
A prominent, independent tribesman from the Khyber region, who cannot be named for his own safety, told The Sunday Telegraph that the Pakistani army was close to losing control of the pass.
"You see vehicles destroyed by rockets on the side of the road," he said. "The wreckage isn't there for long, the army soon removes it to make it look as if they are still in control of the road. But they are on the verge of losing it."
The number of attacks on supply convoys is a military secret, but the tribesman claimed they were occurring almost daily. Earlier this year 42 oil tankers were destroyed in one attack.
Drivers are paid high wages to risk their lives. One driver, Momin Khan Darwish, said: "If there is a more dangerous job in Pakistan, I would like to know what it is." Others describe finding threatening letters from the Taliban pinned to their lorries.
About 70 per cent of the fuel, clothes and food needed by Nato's mission is transported in civilian Pakistani trucks through the Khyber Pass, a vulnerable point in a long route to Kabul which begins in the Pakistani port of Karachi.
The route is too risky to transport weapons and munitions, and most British supplies travel on the southern route from Quetta to Helmand.
There were hopes that Russia would ease Nato's difficulties by granting access through its territory later this year, but that is now in doubt after the war in Georgia.
"If Nato lost control of the pass, there is no doubt that other routes would be found," said Matthew Clements, the Eurasia analyst for Jane's Country Risk. "But they are more difficult and expensive. It would interfere with the smooth running of the operation."
Brigadier-General Richard Blanchett, spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, acknowledged the raids, but denied they were affecting the mission. "There is certainly some enemy action on this supply route," he said. "But it has no impact on our mission in Afghanistan."
However, the tribesman said things were much worse now than in the past. "You used to see a lot of oil tankers that were damaged but the chassis and the engine were fine," he said. "Now it's different."
The lorries' cargoes are then sold in Peshawar's thieves' bazaars, where looted US Army and Marines Corps uniforms and equipment are openly displayed for sale.
Before being shooed away by an angry stallholder, The Sunday Telegraph saw a uniform with the surname "Franklin" emblazoned on the right breast and a book called "On Killing" with a photo of a soldier in Iraq on the cover.
Maps, entrenching tools, US military rations packs and even US medals turn up in stalls set up in a labyrinthine warren where the road heads out of Peshawar city and into a tribal area. US Army helmets are popular with motorcyclists and cricketers.
Farzana Raja, a spokeswoman for Pakistan's interior ministry, insisted that security forces will hold the Khyber Pass. She said: "The government is aware of these attacks on convoys in the Khyber region and it is one of the reasons why we have had a major military operation there in the past few weeks."
The Taliban's tactics are similar to those used by Mujahideen guerrillas in the 1980s who crippled the Soviet Army by attacking supply convoys.
The militants carrying out the attacks are a rag-tag bunch of heavily-armed warlords waiting outside Peshawar's city gates. Most have only recently begun calling themselves Taliban.
Pakistani journalists in Peshawar say the private armies are well-financed and armed, and will receive a fresh infusion of money next month when donations rise during Ramadan.
The Pakistan Army meanwhile is suffering from low morale and high desertion rates, especially because after years of being indoctrinated to fight Hindu Indian soldiers they are now being sent against fellow Muslims in a bloody war that looks unwinnable to many Pakistanis.
telegraph
posted by madtom at 11:20 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home