JAMRUD, PAKISTAN - Pakistan suspended supplies to foreign forces in Afghanistan yesterday as security forces launched an offensive against militants in the Khyber Pass region, a government official said.
Militants have launched a string of attacks in recent months aimed at choking off supplies to foreign forces in landlocked Afghanistan trucked through northwest Pakistan from the port of Karachi.
Khyber's top administrator, Tariq Hayat, told reporters a curfew had been imposed and the main road leading to the Afghan border had been sealed.
"Supplies to Nato forces will remain suspended until we clear the area of militants and outlaws who have gone out of control," he said.
Mr Hayat said security forces, backed by helicopter gunships, artillery and tanks, began an offensive early yesterday against 26 targets including militant strongholds. "Our targets are very clear and specific. We're after them and will try our best to avoid civilian losses," he told reporters in the town of Jamrud.
The Khyber Pass runs between the northwestern city of Peshawar and the border town of Torkham and is a vital supply line for more than 65,000 western troops battling the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. The US military sends 75 per cent of supplies for the Afghan war through or over Pakistan, including 40 per cent of the fuel for its troops, says the US defence department.
The supply route is likely to become even more important as the US sends more troops to Afghanistan, perhaps doubling them to about 60,000 next year.
A spokesman for Nato's Afghan force welcomed the effort to make the route safer. "It will not have a major impact for it's temporary and we have stocks and supplies. Overall, it will be a good thing," said the force spokesman in Kabul, Cpt Mark Windsor.
Mr Hayat declined to say how many soldiers were involved in the operation but said they came from both the army and a paramilitary force. Two intelligence officials, who declined to be identified, said troops were meeting pockets of militant resistance, while another government official said troops had captured two militant hideouts.
Four civilians and one militant had been killed, and seven people, including women and children, were wounded, the government official said. The offensive comes as tension with old rival India is running high after last month's militant attacks on Mumbai.
The Pakistani military has moved some troops off its western border, where security forces have been fighting militants in several places, in response to the tension.
Hundreds of trucks have been destroyed and several drivers killed over the past month and many truckers have stopped taking supplies along the route.
The violence has exposed the vulnerability of the routes and forced Nato to look for alternatives. - (Reuters)