US supply trucks resume travel in Pakistan pass
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
KHYBER PASS, Pakistan, Nov 17 (AP): Security forces escorted container trucks and oil tankers through the Khyber Pass Monday after Pakistan reopened the route critical to transporting supplies to NATO and US troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan suspended the vehicles from the passageway for a security review last week after militants hijacked several trucks whose load included Humvees bound for the US-led coalition.
On Monday, a dozen or so paramilitary pickups joined a convoy of around 30 vehicles as part of new security measures. The escort trucks bore rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. Earlier, the transport trucks travel with little or no security.
Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, as well as ordinary criminals, are behind escalating violence along the porous Afghan-Pakistan border. The danger has made the Khyber Pass an increasingly perilous 30-mile stretch, but one that the US and NATO still rely upon heavily.
The violence in the region continued Monday when an Afghan official said a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of a government office in Kandahar province, killing two policemen and a civilian.
AFP from Peshawar adds: A suicide bomber killed at least three troops when he rammed an explosives-packed vehicle into an army checkpost in Pakistan's restive northwest Monday, the army said.
The attack took place in the Khwaza Khela area of the Swat valley.
Pakistan suspended the vehicles from the passageway for a security review last week after militants hijacked several trucks whose load included Humvees bound for the US-led coalition.
On Monday, a dozen or so paramilitary pickups joined a convoy of around 30 vehicles as part of new security measures. The escort trucks bore rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. Earlier, the transport trucks travel with little or no security.
Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, as well as ordinary criminals, are behind escalating violence along the porous Afghan-Pakistan border. The danger has made the Khyber Pass an increasingly perilous 30-mile stretch, but one that the US and NATO still rely upon heavily.
The violence in the region continued Monday when an Afghan official said a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of a government office in Kandahar province, killing two policemen and a civilian.
AFP from Peshawar adds: A suicide bomber killed at least three troops when he rammed an explosives-packed vehicle into an army checkpost in Pakistan's restive northwest Monday, the army said.
The attack took place in the Khwaza Khela area of the Swat valley.