Pakistan Haulers Refuse to Take Supplies to Afghanistan

[tekisui]

Source: AFP

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — Haulage companies in Pakistan have stopped delivering to foreign troops in Afghanistan after a major deterioration in security along the key supply route, an association official said Monday.

The decision follows a series of major raids by suspected Taliban militants on international military supply depots in northwest Pakistan in the past two weeks in which hundreds of NATO and US-led coalition vehicles were destroyed.

"We have stopped supplies to foreign forces in Afghanistan from today, Mohammad Shakir Afridi, president of the Khyber Transport Association, told AFP Monday in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

"We have around 3,500 trucks, tankers and other vehicles, we are the major suppliers to Afghanistan, transporting about 60-70 percent of goods," said Afridi, whose association represents transport companies in the area.

He said the decision followed a worsening in law and order along the 55-kilometre (35-mile) stretch between Peshawar, where the military supplies are stored, and the Khyber pass which links Pakistan with Afghanistan .

more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gU9NER6FnwTNscMwEOWFyyUPdzMA

[tekisui]

1. Another blow to NATO's supplies

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JL16Df01.html

KARACHI - Taliban militants are striking terror into the container business handling the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) supplies passing through Pakistan on their way to Afghanistan, virtually crippling the operation.

On Saturday, militants destroyed 11 trucks and 13 NATO containers in Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), in their sixth attack in 13 days. Overall, they have destroyed approximately 400 containers carrying food, fuel and military vehicles.

If troop deployment is increased in Afghanistan beyond the present 67,000 - nearly half of them from the US - an estimated


Another blow to NATO's supplies
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - Taliban militants are striking terror into the container business handling the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) supplies passing through Pakistan on their way to Afghanistan, virtually crippling the operation.

On Saturday, militants destroyed 11 trucks and 13 NATO containers in Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), in their sixth attack in 13 days. Overall, they have destroyed approximately 400 containers carrying food, fuel and military vehicles.

If troop deployment is increased in Afghanistan beyond the present 67,000 - nearly half of them from the US - an estimated 70,000 containers will have to be shipped to Afghanistan every year. Currently, about 80% of NATO's supplies pass through Pakistan.

NATO has now been forced to seek alternative - and much more costly - overland routes though Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Ukraine.

more...

[madrchsod]

2. what genuis is in charge of that military blunder...

i thought they lectured on securing supply lines in war college....

[tekisui]

3. This supply route being shut down correlates

to the new addition of troops due next Spring. NATO is scrambling to try and open a route through Russia, and the former Soviet states.

It's a mess. I also read that 3 of the 4 roads into Kabul are compromised by the Taliban.