The Long War Journal: Taliban attacks another NATO trucking terminal in Peshawar

Written by Bill Roggio on March 16, 2009 8:07 PM to The Long War Journal

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/03/taliban_attack_nato_1.php

The Taliban attacked a NATO trucking terminal in Peshawar early Monday morning, destroying more than 30 vehicles and containers. The attack on a terminal used by NATO forces is the second in two days.

A Taliban force of about 50 to 60 fighters entered the Al Faisal Terminal after midnight, overpowered the guards, and rampaged throughout the terminal for an hour before security forces reached the attack site.

"About 50 gunmen attacked us .... They first disarmed us and then began setting fire to bulldozers and Humvees," one of the depot’s guards told Reuters. "A police team arrived after about an hour and an exchange of fire took place for an hour."

More than 30 vehicles, including armored Humvees and construction equipment, were destroyed in the attack.

Today's early morning attack came on the heels of an identical strike in Peshawar at a different terminal on March 15. An estimated 40 Taliban fighters disarmed the security guards and destroyed more than 20 shipping containers and vehicles in that attack.

After a rash of attacks late last year that resulted in the destruction of more than 450 vehicles and containers, the Pakistani government had claimed it would increase security at the terminals. The 2008 attacks, as well as a Feb. 3, 2009, attack in the Khyber tribal agency that destroyed a vital bridge, have forced the government to shut down the Khyber Pass six times since September 2008.

The government has launched multiple security operations in Peshawar and the neighboring Khyber tribal agency since last summer in an effort to push the Taliban out of the region. While the government claims the threat in Peshawar has been eliminated, the Taliban has stepped up attacks on police outposts and the trucking terminals.

NATO's most vital resupply route for its forces in Afghanistan stretches from the Pakistani port city of Karachi to Peshawar, then on through the Khyber Pass to Kabul. More than 70 percent of NATO supplies and 40 percent of its fuel moves through Peshawar.

The US military has dismissed the attacks in Peshawar and Khyber as inconsequential, but the growing Taliban insurgency in the Northwest Frontier Province, coupled with the assault on the supply lines, has forced NATO to seek alternative supply routes into Afghanistan. In late January, NATO secured an agreement with Russia to allow supplies to pass through the Central Asian republics. NATO officials have said its members could use Iranian routes to resupply its forces, and the US is also exploring the possibility of establishing routes through Iran.