Gunmen seize military convoy
Trucks carried gear for U.S.-led troops
PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Suspected Taliban fighters hijacked trucks carrying Humvees and other supplies for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, authorities said Tuesday after a brazen attack near the Khyber Pass that underscored the militants’ grip across key mountain strongholds.
The assault highlighted the vulnerability of a vital supply route for the 65,000 U.S. and NATO forces battling a resurgent Taliban in landlocked Afghanistan.
Separately, in the nearby city of Peshawar, gunmen blocked the car of an American aid worker today and killed him and his Pakistani driver, police said.
Some 60 masked militants blocked the route at several points before overpowering the convoy, said Fazal Mahmood, a government official in Khyber tribal region. He identified the attackers as members of Pakistan’s Taliban movement.
Security forces traded fire with the gunmen, but were forced to retreat, he said. The militants took about 13 trucks along with the drivers, who were believed to be Pakistani.
A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan confirmed the thefts.
Security forces, backed by helicopter gunships, hunted for the missing trucks and drivers. The military said late Tuesday it had recovered some of the stolen materials but would not specify what.
Most of the supplies for U.S. and other foreign troops in Afghanistan arrive by ship at Pakistan’s port of Karachi in unmarked containers. They are then taken by colorfully decorated trucks to places like Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, the Afghan capital.
NATO and U.S. officials have declined to say if the trucks carry weapons and ammunition. They have in the past suggested that ordinary criminals – not an orchestrated campaign by militants – are the main problem.
The Khyber Pass, a stretch of about 30 miles, has long been an important trade route. It abuts Peshawar.
The American aid worker was shot to death today in Peshawar’s upscale University Town, police official Arshad Khan said. U.S. Embassy acting spokesman Wes Robertson declined to identify the American or say what he was doing in the area other than to say he was not a diplomat.
However, a Western security official in Peshawar said the slain American worked for a development organization with projects in the northwest.