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Afghanistan
Afghanistan: Taliban bomb destroys 22 Nato fuel tankers
2012-07-18
A bomb planted by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan has destroyed 22 Nato fuel tankers carrying supplies to coalition forces, local officials say.

The vehicles were hit by a pre-dawn explosion which triggered a huge fire that engulfed them in flames, they say.

At the time, the trucks were parked overnight in Samangan province, as they headed from Uzbekistan towards Nato forces in the south.

Police told the BBC that the fire caused by the bomb is still burning.

An intelligence official said the device was attached under one of the trucks, which were parked close together.

"Since it was early in the morning, there were not a lot of people around. Otherwise, it could have caused a lot more casualties,'' the official told the BBC.

In a statement, the Taliban said they carried out the attack, which officials say is the first of its kind in northern Afghanistan.

The trucks were attacked in the same province where well-known Afghan politician Ahmad Khan Samangani was killed in a suicide attack on Saturday while attending his daughter's wedding.
Posted by:tipper

#6  #5 is dead-on - every Tanker or Supply Tank the Militants destroy is another major fuel or food riot in Pakistan's Cities-towns, a consequence which I'm sure the Militants were well-aware of.

* WORLD NEWS > [NATO] SUPPLIES TO AFGHANISTAN NOT FULLY RESTORED YET.

Milyuhns and Tilyuhns of Trucks remain backlogged at staging areas due to ...

i. Lack of reliable security at key checkpoints.
ii.Hard to transport Fuel, etc. to Afghanistan when your Truck isn't carrying any, as due to Pak oil companies not providing any loads to filleth same.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2012-07-18 23:09  

#5  Generally these aren't "NATO" fuel tankers. They are private Pakistani fuel tankers under contract to move NATO fuel. By blowing these tankers up, they have actually reduced the ability of the Pakistani economy to move fuel domestically for their own use. In other words, the Taliban have just reduced the amount of fuel available in their own gas stations for their own use. But they're apparently too stupid to understand this.
Posted by: crosspatch   2012-07-18 20:52  

#4  Perhaps an inside job? Perhaps the 'bomb' was attached earlier and they simply waited for the trucks to be all bunched-up like this.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2012-07-18 13:23  

#3  Parked all together with no security? No guards? Nobody watching? No fence? Not even a dog?
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2012-07-18 11:30  

#2  "Nobody knows anything about a war until it begins. Just two years before the Polish air force had been blown to hell on the ground. The French caught it the following spring. In spite of that, the same thing happened to our planes at Pearl Harbor. And yet two days later, in spite of all of it the Japs catch our air corps [at Clark Field] on Luzon with its pants down. Only that wasn't the end. Months later, on my way out through Australia, I pass a big American field, and there they are, bombers and fighters parked in orderly rows, wing tip to wing tip. "Hell," they told me, "The Japs are hundreds of miles away." Except that's where they're always supposed to be when they catch you with your pants down, and I thought to myself, Jesus Christ, won't these guys ever learn?"
-- A young American naval officer, early 1942
Posted by: gromky   2012-07-18 11:14  

#1  I suppose it's stupid to ask, "Why were they so close to each other".
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2012-07-18 10:59  

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