Gunmen torch NATO tankers in Pakistan

Unknown gunmen in the troubled southwestern Pakistan have torched three NATO tankers carrying supplies to US-led forces in neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistan police officials said that the attack was carried out on Monday in a region near Quetta in the southwestern province of Balochistan.

Four assailants on two motorcycles fired at the tankers and set them ablaze before fleeing the scene, police officials added.

The incident happened a day after two gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire at a NATO tanker in Dhadar area of Bolan district in the same province.

Å“The container was forced to stop after gun fire, at which point the armed assailants set it on fire,” Dawn newspaper quoted a senior security official as saying on Sunday.

Hundreds of NATO tankers and containers have been destroyed in different parts of Pakistan during the past three years.

Pro-Taliban militants often claim responsibility for such attacks, saying that the assaults are in retaliation for the US killer drone strikes on the tribal regions of Pakistan.

Despite frequent attacks on NATO supply convoys, the US military has not stopped its drone strikes on the Pakistani territory.

Washington claims the airstrikes target militants but local sources say the attacks have led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Pakistan since 2008.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism said in a report in February that the United States had carried out more than 360 assassination drone attacks in Pakistan since 2004, killing nearly 3,500 people.

The slaughter of Pakistani civilians, including women and children, in US drone strikes has strained relations between Islamabad and Washington, and Pakistani officials have complained to the US administration on numerous occasions.

Meanwhile, thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives in bombings and other militant attacks since 2001 when Pakistan entered an alliance with the US in its so-called war against terrorism.

MAM/AS