Gunmen torch NATO oil tankers in Pakistan

Oct 13, 2011, 9:10 GMT

Islamabad - Gunmen on Thursday destroyed at least four tanker trucks carrying oil for NATO troops in Afghanistan in an attack at a roadside parking lot in southern Pakistan, police said.

The attack took place in the Sultan Kot area of the Shikarpur district, 400 kilometres north-east of the port city of Karachi, the capital of Sindh province and the hub for distribution of supplies to Western troops in landlocked Afghanistan.

Khair Mohammad, a police official, said by telephone that two gunmen riding on a motorbike opened indiscriminate fire at the parked lorries, immediately setting them ablaze.

'Four tankers were destroyed, and the attackers succeeded in fleeing,' Mohammad said.

No one had taken responsibility for the attack, but the Taliban have repeatedly torched NATO supply convoys across Pakistan.

Most of these raids have taken place in the south-western province of Baluchistan and the north-western province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, both of which border Afghanistan.

More than 80 per cent of NATO supplies are transported to Afghanistan through Pakistan.

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