Gunmen attack NATO supply trucks in Pakistan

PESHAWAR: Gunmen in Pakistan attacked trucks bound for NATO in Afghanistan yesterday, killing a driver, officials said, in the first such incident since supply lines reopened after a seven-month blockade.
Islamabad agreed three weeks ago to allow convoys supplying coalition troops in its wartorn neighbour to pass through its territory once again after halting them in November after a botched US air raid that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but Pakistani Taliban have threatened to attack NATO trucks and kill their drivers, and right-wing and extremist religious groups have held demonstrations against the resumption of convoys.
The trucks were attacked near the market in Jamrud town on the outskirts of Peshawar, the main city in the troubled northwest, local administration official Bakhtiar Khan said.
"Two armed men riding on a motorbike opened fire on a container carrying supplies for NATO troops across the border and killed its driver," Khan told AFP, adding that the driver's helper was seriously wounded.
Another administration official said the truck was part of a convoy of three or four vehicles travelling without security protection when they came under attack.
A hospital official in Jamrud confirmed the casualties.
"The driver was shifted to our hospital in serious condition, he died later," doctor Azam Khan of the state-run Jamrud hospital told AFP.
He received one bullet in the head and two in the chest, he added.
Pakistan on July 3 decided to reopen overland routes to NATO convoys after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said sorry for the air strike deaths last November.
The crisis was the worst episode in Pakistan's decade-long partnership with Washington in the war in Afghanistan, with both sides still struggling to overcome a breakdown in trust.