Five NATO tankers torched in Pakistan: officials

Gunmen set ablaze at least five oil tankers in southwestern Pakistan which were carrying fuel for NATO forces stationed in neighbouring Afghanistan, officials said Saturday.

The men armed with automatic weapons fired at the tankers, causing them to catch fire on a main highway in the Dasht area, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Quetta, the capital of restive Baluchistan province.

"Unknown gunmen opened fire on five oil tankers parked at the roadside on the main Quetta-Jacobabad national highway in the Dasht area late Friday after which the vehicles caught fire," tribal police official Abdul Salam said.

There were no casualties, he added.

The tankers were waiting for a paramilitary and police escort for their onward journey to Afghanistan via the Chaman border.

No group has claimed responsibility but in the past the Taliban has carried out similar attacks to disrupt supplies to US-led international troops fighting in Afghanistan.

Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants frequently launch attacks on NATO supply vehicles in the northwest and southwest Pakistan area bordering landlocked Afghanistan.

Most supplies and equipment required by foreign forces in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistan, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through Central Asia.

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