Sixteen tankers carrying oil for NATO troops in Afghanistan were destroyed by a bomb at a terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar, in the latest attack by militants aimed at disrupting NATO supply line through Pakistan
A total of 28 NATO oil tankers were parked at a terminal. Local police official police official Khurshid Khan stated, "We are trying to move away other oil tankers. We are not clear whether the bomb was planted in the terminal or with a tanker. Sixteen tankers were completely destroyed," The Express Tribune reported.
The source quoting tanker drivers said a tanker had arrived a day earlier in the yard, after which its chassis was taken out and the vehicle exploded. In July police in Nowshera district had detained several tanker drivers on charges of sabotaging their vehicles.
Most supplies and equipment used by U.S. and International Security Assistance Force soldiers in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistan, first being brought in by sea to Karachi and then being loaded onto trucks for a 700-mile journey to the Pakistani border crossing towns of Chman and Torkham, although U.S. forces are increasingly using alternative routes through Central Asia.
Following a similar attack in January Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq said, "We have assigned our fighters to go after the NATO supply tankers wherever in Pakistan. We want to make very, very difficult all land routes for NATO in Pakistan."
By. Joao Peixe, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com
Joao is a writer for Oilprice.com More