PESHAWAR, Pakistan — A bomb destroyed at least 16 tankers on
Saturday carrying fuel for NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan,
Pakistan police said, the latest in a string of attempts to disrupt
supplies.
A total of 28 NATO oil tankers were parked at a
terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar, the main city in Pakistan's
northwest, at the time of the explosion, which triggered a fire that
engulfed 16 of the vehicles.
"We are trying to move away other
oil tankers. We are not clear whether the bomb was planted in the
terminal or with a tanker," police official Khurshid Khan told AFP from
the site. "Sixteen tankers were completely destroyed."
There were no reports of any casualties, he added.
Mohammad
Ijaz Khan, another senior police officer in Peshawar, said fire
fighters were frantically trying to control the blaze. He said three
explosions were heard before the fire swept through the parked tankers.
No
group has claimed responsibility but the Taliban have in the past said
they carried out such attacks to disrupt supplies for more than 130,000
US-led international troops fighting in Afghanistan.
Taliban and
Al-Qaeda-linked militants frequently launch attacks across northwestern
Pakistan and the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, which
Washington has branded the most dangerous place in the world.
Most
supplies and equipment required by soldiers in Afghanistan are shipped
through Pakistan, although US troops increasingly use alternative
routes through Central Asia. AFP
