| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan: Taliban destroying NATO supply lines |
| 2008-12-16 |
| (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 |
| #9 Some modicum of progress is NOT an unfair request from the people who pay out the ass for this adventure. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-12-16 21:55 |
| #8 Way to hang in there kidz! Not happy with things? Feeling like you're out of the loop? Wet your pants frequently at 2 a.m.? Is your life worthless without a leader? Sad ain't it? Ah well, Ima see if I can get a life you you guys. I work in wholesale.... |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-12-16 18:27 |
| #7 Is it just me or does the war in Afghanistan seem to lack any kind of focus or direction? We seem to be floundering around, killing bad guys when we get a good chance to, building some stuff here and there. Now it looks like the Taliwackers control well over half the country, we have no supply line, and even if we did, it would cost us a fortune worth of filthy bribe money to keep it open. I hope someone in Washington has a plan, because to the casual observer it looks like a total cluster-f*ck. Nothing seems to work there, not even killing them. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-12-16 15:54 |
| #6 Lies, all lies. Bush-the-genius made an alliance with Pakistan after 9-11, notwithstanding the fact that the seeds of 9-11 were sown in that pig-pen. Bush-logic: the-genius wouldn't put American troops in jeopardy, therefore Taliban couldn't have attacked NATO supplies. |
| Posted by: Jitch Protector of the Nebraskans3505 2008-12-16 14:48 |
| #5 But this is the good war. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-12-16 14:36 |
| #4 So they have stopped the supply line. Obvious question, are we going to let them? Are we going to pay the ransom in the form of another couple billion in 'aid' to pakistan? Or do we wash our hands of them and go through russia? Don't tell me that nobody in the whole damned pentagon considered this possibility? |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-12-16 14:07 |
| #3 REALLY, Paul?? |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-12-16 13:33 |
| #2 What has happened all of a sudden to the Pak Army supervision???? I smell an ISI operation in this! |
| Posted by: Paul2 2008-12-16 06:30 |
| #1 THIS is a key reason why we went to war in Iraq - we knew the supply lines to Afghanistan were very vulnerable. At least in Iraq we could provide whatever firepower was needed to protect the convoys coming in from Kuwait, including A-10s & Cobras. We CAN maintain operation capability to fight via airlift, but the humanitarian and nation building efforts will stop, and that is not good if one is trying to fight terrorists with minimal collateral damage. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-12-16 01:45 |