Pakistan halts NATO supplies to Afghanistan

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PESHAWAR, Sept 30 (AFP): Pakistan shut down the main land route for NATO supplies into Afghanistan Thursday after officials accused NATO of killing Pakistani troops in the fourth cross-border attack this week.
NATO and the Pakistani government said they were investigating the incident in the Kurram district of Pakistan's tribal belt, which Washington has branded an Al-Qaeda headquarters and hub of militants fighting in Afghanistan.
The region is being targeted by a record number of US drone strikes and was reportedly where Al-Qaeda hatched a plot to attack cities in Britain, France and Germany uncovered by Western intelligence agencies.
"We have suspended NATO supply trucks for the time being due to security reasons," an official in Pakistan's Frontier Corps paramilitary unit told the news agency in the northwestern city of Peshawar on condition of anonymity.
Two officials at the Torkham border crossing in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber district and a US diplomat confirmed that NATO convoys were not being allowed to cross.
Khyber is on the main NATO supply route into Afghanistan, where more than 152,000 US and NATO forces are fighting a nine-year Taliban insurgency.
Pakistan has condemned cross-border air strikes by NATO helicopters pursuing militants into its territory. NATO said it was investigating Thursday's incident, but has said previously it has the right to self-defence.
Washington considers Pakistan's border areas with Afghanistan the most dangerous place on Earth and has this month significantly stepped up a covert drone war on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants holed up in the area.