Nato fuel convoy set on fire in Pakistan attack

Pakistan shut the Torkham crossing along the Khyber Pass last Thursday after a Nato helicopter attack in the border area killed three Pakistani troops.

The closure has left hundreds of lorries stranded alongside the country's highways and bottlenecked traffic heading to the one route into Afghanistan from the south which has remained open.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell emphasised that the Torkham closing had not caused fuel problems for Nato troops. The United States has supply routes through other countries into Afghanistan Hundreds of supply lorries still cross into the landlocked country each day through the Chaman crossing in south-western Pakistan and via Central Asian states.

Pakistan is the fastest and cheapest way to get goods to Afghanistan, and trouble with other routes in the past makes it even more vital.

Uzbekistan evicted US troops from a base which was used to ferry supplies into Afghanistan, and last year Kyrgyzstan threatened to do the same, though it has since backed down.

The attack early yesterday were on lorries on their way to the Chaman crossing.

An unidentified number of gunmen in two vehicles attacked the lorries in the car park of a roadside hotel on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province.

At least 25 lorries were destroyed by fire which spread quickly from vehicle to vehicle, said senior police official Hamid Shakil.

It was not clear which group was behind the latest attack, but the Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for similar assaults on Nato supplies, including one before dawn on Monday in which four people were killed.