Attacks on NATO trucks could see alternate route to Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD - Incensed over the terror attacks on NATO supply trucks travelling to Afghanistan through Pakistan, US-led allied forces have warned Islamabad they would abandon Pakistan as a major supply route to the war-torn country if such assaults are not prevented.

The increase in the number of terror attacks on NATO convoys coupled with the floods in Pakistan that washed away several key bridges and highways have forced the US-led allied forces in Afghanistan to seek alternative supply routes, the News International quoted diplomatic sources in Islamabad as saying.

The NATO convoys passing through Pakistan are the principal source of logistical support for the US-led allied forces in Afghanistan. It is the shortest and most economical route and almost 75 percent of ammunition, vehicles, foodstuff and around 50 percent of fuel have been transported through Pakistan.

Islamabad receives a massive reimbursement of economic and military assistance from the US for providing these logistical facilities to Afghanistan.

On Sep 30, 2010 a cross-border helicopter attack killed three Pakistani troops, prompting Pakistan to block a key supply route for the US-led NATO force in Afghanistan.

Around 100 NATO vehicles are held up at Pakistans border with Afghanistan and 27 oil tankers carrying fuel for the NATO forces were set ablaze by Taliban-linked militants in the Shikarpur district of the Sindh province Thursday night.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik had said a few weeks back that NATO was responsible for the safety of its supply lines, and that Pakistan cannot provide security to the 4,000 trucks that travel across the country every day.

Statistics show that in a brief span of one month - in September - as many as 22 NATO convoys were targeted by the militants, taking the tally of such assaults for the year 2010 to 55.

Diplomatic circles here say the allied forces have “decided to warn Pakistan and accelerate efforts to secure an agreement with some of the former Russian states to allow food and military supplies to pass through the Central Asian Republics (CARs)”, the media report said.

The US was keen to secure three different alternative supply routes for Afghanistan.

The first one is the northern route that starts in the Latvian port of Riga, the largest all-weather harbour on the Baltic Sea, where container ships offload their cargo onto Russian trains. The shipments can then go south through Russia, then southeast around the Caspian Sea through Kazakhstan and finally south through Uzbekistan until they cross the frontier into north Afghanistan.

The second alternative is the southern route that transits the Caucuses, completely bypassing Russia, from Georgia. Starting from the Black Sea port, Ponti, it travels north to Azerbaijan and its port, Baku. Landfall is Kazakhstan, where the goods are carried by trucks to Uzbekistan and finally Afghanistan.

A third one is a spur of the northern route and it bypasses Uzbekistan and proceeds from Kazakhstan via Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which has a north east border with Afghanistan. But this route is hampered by bad road conditions in Tajikistan.