Up to 20 Nato trucks destroyed in Quetta

Pakistan

Up to 20 Nato trucks destroyed in Quetta

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Up to 20 trucks were destroyed in a rocket attack Thursday on a NATO trucking terminal in Quetta.

08 December,2011 09:59 pm

A number of oil tankers and goods trucks were parked in the temporary terminal in Quetta after Pakistan shut down supply lines for NATO forces in anger at a deadly cross-border air strike which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.Senior police official Malik Arshad told AFP that unknown gunmen fired bullets and a rocket at the NATO oil tankers and the ensuing blaze engulfed 15 to 20 vehicles in Quetta.We do not know about any casualties yet because the blaze is so huge, Arshad said.First the fire started in two oil tankers and the fuel started leaking which spread the fire to other vehicles, Arshad said.Fire brigade and emergency services were called in immediately after the attack, he said.No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack but the Taliban have in the past said they carried out similar attacks to disrupt supplies for the more than 130,000 US-led international troops fighting in Afghanistan.Most supplies and equipment required by foreign forces in Afghanistan are usually shipped through Pakistan, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through Central Asia.Pakistan sealed its Afghan border to NATO supply convoys, boycotted this weeks Bonn conference on the future of Afghanistan and ordered US personnel to vacate an air base reportedly used by CIA drones.Pakistan shut its main northwestern border crossing to NATO supply vehicles for 11 days last year after a cross-border NATO helicopter assault killed two Pakistani soldiers.