|
Pakistan: Taliban destroying NATO supply lines
(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - Taliban attacks have completely halted the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's supplies travelling through Pakistan on their way to Afghanistan. In the past two weeks, 400 containers bound for the Afghan capital, Kabul, were destroyed by Taliban militants.Militants on Saturday destroyed 11 trucks and 13 NATO containers in Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, in their fourth attack in a week. Local security forces have also been unable to provide adequate protection for the 11 container terminals in Peshawar because members are engaged in fighting the Taliban in the tribal regions. "I can confirm that all the shipments have been stopped as nobody is ready to take casualties or damages," Zia ul-Haq Sarhadi, the Chairman of the standing committee for the dry port of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce (the chamber for NWFP), told Adnkronos International. The Taliban carried out isolated attacks on the NATO supply line through Pakistan this year but by mid-year the number of attacks had increased so much that NATO was compelled to sign a deal with Russia in April for the far more expensive option of transporting non-military freight through its territory. But such a route risked putting the budget of the western forces under serious strain. The reason is clear. Recently, NATO announced it would move its supplies through Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan into Afghanistan. Because it's a landlocked country, it substantially increases the cost of supply, far more than the present route from the Pakistani port of Karachi to Kabul. "If we succeed with this supply blockage, NATO will have no alternative but to leave Afghanistan within a year," a senior Pakistani militant told AKI on condition of anonymity. Currently 80 percent of NATO's supplies are transported through Pakistan. The blocking of NATO's supply routes comes only three months before the Taliban launch their Spring offensive in Afghanistan. Additional US combat troops are due to arrive there in mid-2009. NATO officials tried to downplay the issue last week by saying that attacks on its supply line would have no impact on NATO's operational ability to fight in Afghanistan. In August, the British daily The Financial Times said that some military bases in southern Afghanistan were almost running on empty and had stopped all military operations because of fuel shortages. Last week the highly respected International Council on Security and Development (the former Senlis Council) said that the Taliban now had a permanent presence in 72 percent of Afghanistan, up from 54 percent a year ago. Taliban forces have also advanced from their southern stronghold, where they are now the "de facto" governing power" to western and north-western provinces, as well as provinces north of Kabul, the think-tank said. Posted by: Fred 2008-12-16 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=257357 |