Truck Ban Raises Security Concerns

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Truck Ban Raises Security Concern
November 16, 2008
Associated Press

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - A Pakistani decision to temporarily bar some trucks from a key passageway to Afghanistan threatened a critical supply route for U.S. and NATO troops on Sunday and raised more fears about deteriorating security in the militant-plagued border region.

The suspension of oil tankers and trucks with sealed containers - commonly used for supplies for U.S. and NATO forces - came as U.S.-led coalition troops reported killing five al-Qaida-linked fighters and detaining eight others, including a militant leader, in eastern Afghanistan.

Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are behind much of the escalating violence along the lengthy, porous Afghan-Pakistan border, and both nations have traded accusations that the other was not doing enough to keep militants out from its side.

The tensions come as violence in Afghanistan has reached its highest level since the U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime in 2001, and as a surge in U.S. missile strikes on the Pakistani side of the border has prompted protests from Pakistan government leaders.

Last Monday, a band of militants hijacked about a dozen trucks whose load included Humvees headed to the foreign forces in Afghanistan. Renewed security concerns prompted officials to impose the temporary truck ban late Saturday, government official Bakhtiar Khan said. He said it could be lifted as early as Monday.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/truck-ban-raises-security-concerns.html