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Afghanistan
The Taliban talk the talk
2008-04-11
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
With the destruction of a bridge on the Indus Highway in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) region of Darra Adamkhel last weekend, the Taliban have taken another step towards choking the supplies that flood through Pakistan to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) mission in Afghanistan.

At the same time, the Taliban believe an agreement Russia concluded with NATO at its summit last week will not alleviate the situation. Moscow agreed to the transit of food and non-military cargo and "some types of non-lethal military equipment" across Russia to Afghanistan. NATO is acutely aware that the 70% of its supplies that enter Afghanistan through Pakistan are in jeopardy with the Taliban's new focus on cutting transit routes.
Posted by:Fred

#3  We don't need Russian help. They don't share a border w/ Afghanistan. Their advantage is that railroads from Europe are convenient. An air or land/sea corridor requires the permission of only Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. In addition Turkmenistan is bursting with fuel and the other FSU Stans are more than happy to make money selling anything they can.
Posted by: ed   2008-04-11 11:55  

#2  I wonder if the Moscow agreement includes fuel as 'non-military cargo'? Good chance it does. Fuel is a huge chunk of the tonnage of supplies, and also the most vulnerable. And unlike most supplies, it can actually be purchased in Russia instead of being shipped all the way from the US.
Posted by: Menhadden Snogum6713   2008-04-11 08:25  

#1  We shall see. But it seems to me that a C-5 could haul in an awful lot of supplies in one shot.
Posted by: gorb   2008-04-11 02:35  

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