.Gunmen attack NATO fuel tankers in Pakistan: police
QUETTA, Pakistan — Gunmen on Friday attacked two tankers travelling though Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan to supply fuel to NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, police said.
The ambush took place in the Kalay Malik Hashim area, 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the provincial capital Quetta.
"A group of five gunmen attacked the two tankers, which were parked by a roadside hotel on their way to Afghanistan, and set them on fire early Friday," local police official Mohammad Ansar told AFP.
"All the gunmen later fled the scene while firing gunshots in the air."
The gunmen also shot at the tankers, he said, adding that the driver's compartment of one truck was destroyed by flames and some oil was lost.
An official in the paramilitary Frontier Corps also confirmed the incident and said there were no reports of deaths.
It was the second such incident this week in Baluchistan, after a NATO tanker driver and his helper were killed by gunmen on Wednesday night.
NATO and US-led forces in landlocked Afghanistan are hugely dependent on Pakistan for supplies, with about 80 percent passing through Pakistan.
The bulk of equipment required by foreign troops is shipped through northwest Pakistan's tribal region of Khyber, where Taliban militants have carried out a series of attacks on trucks.
Other supplies travel through oil and gas-rich Baluchistan, which is troubled by both Taliban violence and attacks by separatists who rose up in 2004 demanding autonomy and a greater share of the profits from natural resources.
AFP
The ambush took place in the Kalay Malik Hashim area, 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the provincial capital Quetta.
"A group of five gunmen attacked the two tankers, which were parked by a roadside hotel on their way to Afghanistan, and set them on fire early Friday," local police official Mohammad Ansar told AFP.
"All the gunmen later fled the scene while firing gunshots in the air."
The gunmen also shot at the tankers, he said, adding that the driver's compartment of one truck was destroyed by flames and some oil was lost.
An official in the paramilitary Frontier Corps also confirmed the incident and said there were no reports of deaths.
It was the second such incident this week in Baluchistan, after a NATO tanker driver and his helper were killed by gunmen on Wednesday night.
NATO and US-led forces in landlocked Afghanistan are hugely dependent on Pakistan for supplies, with about 80 percent passing through Pakistan.
The bulk of equipment required by foreign troops is shipped through northwest Pakistan's tribal region of Khyber, where Taliban militants have carried out a series of attacks on trucks.
Other supplies travel through oil and gas-rich Baluchistan, which is troubled by both Taliban violence and attacks by separatists who rose up in 2004 demanding autonomy and a greater share of the profits from natural resources.
AFP
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