NATO driver killed, 7 tankers burnt in Pakistan

QUETTA, Dec 12, (agencies): Gunmen killed a NATO truck driver and burnt seven tankers carrying oil for Western troops in Afghanistan, the second such attack in southwest Pakistan in less than a week, police said Monday. The convoy was attacked while returning to the port city Karachi from the Afghan border, which Pakistan shut to NATO supplies on November 26 after NATO air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. The gunmen attacked in the town of Dadar in Bolan district, about 90 kilometres (56 miles) southwest of Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, police said. "Around eight gunmen approached the convoy on motorcycles in Bolan district, ordered it to stop and started firing on the tankers," senior local police official Inayat Bugti told AFP. "A driver of one of the tankers was also hit by a bullet and was killed instantly. The attackers later put the tankers on fire and escaped," he said. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack but the Taliban have in the past said they carried out such attacks to disrupt supplies for the 140,000 US-led international troops fighting in Afghanistan. Meanwhile: The United States Sunday vacated a Pakistani airbase following a deadline given by Islamabad over NATO air strikes last month that killed 24 soldiers, security officials said. "The Americans have vacated the Shamsi air base and it has been handed over to the Pakistani security forces," a senior security official told AFP. The base in the southwestern province of Baluchistan was widely believed to have been used in covert CIA drone attacks against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Another official in Baluchistan confirmed that the last batch of US officials left in two flights Sunday Meanwhile: Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani has said his country does not trust the United States, and the feeling is mutual. He told the BBC it could be weeks before a blockade of Nato convoys carrying supplies to Afghanistan is lifted, following two US air strikes which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghan border last month. Mr Gilani said it was vital to improve the relationship. Another report adds: Pakistan opened a two-day Envoys ' Conference in Islamabad Monday to deliberate on "different aspects" of the country's foreign policy with special focus on review of relationship with the United States and NATO, the Foreign Ministry said. The conference assumed importance as Pakistani leaders have decided to review its relationship with the United States and its Western allies in the wake of the Nov. 26 NATO attack on Pakistani border posts, which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.