The pre-dawn Taliban raid took place at a logistics terminal in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar where dozens of trucks carrying Humvees and other military vehicles were parked. The terminal manager, Kifayatullah Khan, tells VOA there were a total of 106 vehicles and the heavily armed men destroyed all of them before fleeing the scene. "There were around 300 people who came and attacked the terminal. They first fired on our main gate with a rocket, damaging the gate and making their entrance," Khan said. "When they entered the terminal they started firing in different directions. One of our security guards was killed in the incident." More than 70 percent of supplies for NATO and U.S forces stationed in landlocked Afghanistan are trucked through Peshawar after they are unloaded from ships at the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi. But the supplies have come under frequent attacks by Taliban militants at logistic terminals in and around Peshawar as well as while passing through the Khyber Pass.
More than 90 lorries supplying US forces in Afghanistan have been set on fire in a suspected militant attack in north-west Pakistan, police say. Police said at least one person was killed as about 300 gunmen using rockets overpowered the guards at a terminal near the city of Peshawar. Some of the lorries were laden with Humvee armoured vehicles. There have been a series of attacks on convoys recently - although not on this scale, says the BBC's Martin Patience. The road from Peshawar to Afghanistan is a major supply route for US and Western forces battling against the Taleban. A US spokesman, Lt Col Rumi Nielsen-Green, said the incident was "militarily insignificant". "So far there hasn't been a significant loss or impact to our mission," she said. But, with 300 lorries crossing the border each day, military officials will be deeply concerned that their supply line can be disrupted in this manner, our correspondent in the Afghan capital, Kabul, says.
More than 90 lorries supplying US forces in Afghanistan have been set on fire in a suspected militant attack in north-west Pakistan, police say.
Police said at least one person was killed as about 300 gunmen using rockets overpowered the guards at a terminal near the city of Peshawar.
Some of the lorries were laden with Humvee armoured vehicles.
There have been a series of attacks on convoys recently - although not on this scale, says the BBC's Martin Patience.
The road from Peshawar to Afghanistan is a major supply route for US and Western forces battling against the Taleban.
A US spokesman, Lt Col Rumi Nielsen-Green, said the incident was "militarily insignificant".
"So far there hasn't been a significant loss or impact to our mission," she said.
But, with 300 lorries crossing the border each day, military officials will be deeply concerned that their supply line can be disrupted in this manner, our correspondent in the Afghan capital, Kabul, says.
Pakistani security forces raided a camp run by Lashkar-e-Taiba on Sunday, according to a senior Pakistani official. The Pakistani official said the action against the camp was taken because of evidence that the militants based in the facility were linked to the attacks on Mumbai. He said information about the Lashkar-e-Taiba facility was provided to President Asif Ali Zardari's government by both India and the U.S. "We are taking action based on the intelligence given to us," the official said. "It's Pakistan's decision based on our own national interest." The official said he expects his government to conduct more actions against Lashkar-e-Taiba in the days and weeks ahead.
The Pakistani official said the action against the camp was taken because of evidence that the militants based in the facility were linked to the attacks on Mumbai. He said information about the Lashkar-e-Taiba facility was provided to President Asif Ali Zardari's government by both India and the U.S.
"We are taking action based on the intelligence given to us," the official said. "It's Pakistan's decision based on our own national interest." The official said he expects his government to conduct more actions against Lashkar-e-Taiba in the days and weeks ahead.
MUZAFFARABAD/ISLAMABAD: Security forces have launched a `quiet' crackdown on activists belonging to the banned jihadi outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba in different parts of the country and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. In Muzaffarabad, a major army operation was under way in the city suburbs on Sunday against a site being used by the Jamaatud Dawa, which is headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. Sources said that more than 20 members of the banned organisation and Lashkar-e-Taiba's `commander' Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi had been arrested. <...> Police and civil administration officials in Muzaffarabad told reporters they did not know what was happening. Local residents, however, said they had seen army personnel taking control of the area along Shawai Nullah, some five kilometres northwest of Muzaffarabad, where the organisation possesses a large plot of land on which several buildings had been built. The Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT) of Hafiz Saeed occupied the same place before the organisation was proscribed. <...> AFP quoted an intelligence official as saying that three Jamaat-ud-Dawa members had been arrested on Monday. `Three people were rounded up in a brief operation against the Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa,' the official said. ...
In Muzaffarabad, a major army operation was under way in the city suburbs on Sunday against a site being used by the Jamaatud Dawa, which is headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. Sources said that more than 20 members of the banned organisation and Lashkar-e-Taiba's `commander' Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi had been arrested. <...>
Police and civil administration officials in Muzaffarabad told reporters they did not know what was happening.
Local residents, however, said they had seen army personnel taking control of the area along Shawai Nullah, some five kilometres northwest of Muzaffarabad, where the organisation possesses a large plot of land on which several buildings had been built. The Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT) of Hafiz Saeed occupied the same place before the organisation was proscribed. <...>
AFP quoted an intelligence official as saying that three Jamaat-ud-Dawa members had been arrested on Monday.
`Three people were rounded up in a brief operation against the Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa,' the official said. ...
