Pakistan Fighters Torch NATO Supplies

Taliban fighters launched a pre-dawn raid on NATO terminals in Pakistan Sunday, torching nearly 200 supply trucks and other vehicles destined for troops in Afghanistan, police said.

About 250 heavily armed fighters attacked two major terminals in the northwestern city of Peshawar, disarming security guards before dousing 89 trucks in petrol and setting them alight. One guard was killed in the audacious attack, which also destroyed two armored vehicles, two fire engines, ammunition containers and 89 jeeps meant for international troops in Afghanistan.

Police described the attack, on three different locations in the city, as the biggest of its kind so far. "This is the first time the fighters came in such large number," senior police officer Abdul Qadir Qamar said, calling it a "coordinated and well-planned attack."

Taliban fighters, who had stolen the petrol from a nearby gas station, fled when police arrived at the scene, Qamar added. One security official said they had struck as police were busy investigating Friday's huge bomb blast in Peshawar that killed 34 people and wounded 120 others. "It was also a weekend and security was relatively relaxed because of Eid vacations," the official said. Pakistan celebrates the Muslim festival of Eid on Tuesday.

The trucks were loaded with supplies bound for Afghanistan, where NATO forces are battling a growing Taliban insurgency. Taliban- and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have in the past attacked oil tankers and trucks on their way across from Pakistan to Afghanistan, a major supply route for international troops there.

NATO has around 50,000 troops in Afghanistan and the pass is a lifeline for the force. Pakistan's army chief vowed last month to keep the supply line to Afghanistan open, reaffirming support for the alliance's mission there.