Pakistan/Afghanistan

Nato tankers set alight, Kerry in Islamabad

Article published on the 2009-04-13 Latest update 2009-04-14 09:10 TU

A burnt NATO supply truck outside of Peshawar
(Photo: Reuters)

Pro-Taliban militants are suspected of having again attacked the main Nato forces' supply line into Afghanistan from north-western Pakistan. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani told US senator John Kerry in Islamabad Pakistan would like aid without conditions and with goodwill.

Around 35 tankers were reportedly parked overnight in an unauthorized area in Peshawar, Pakistani police officials reported. Six of the tankers were set alight by a bomb planted underneath one of them. Five others then caught fire before firefighters arrived on the scene.

Peshawar is a staging point for supplies destined for the international forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, which are transported by trucks through the tribal Kyber region, where attacks have been on the rise in recent months.

Meanwhile, the Taliban reportedly beheaded a Pakistani man and shot dead an Afghan after accusing them of spying for United States forces in North Waziristan, a tribal border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

US Senator John Kerry arrived in the Pakistan capital, Islamabad for talks with top Pakistani officials on Monday. Kerry, who is travelling as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Monday morning, and President Asif Ali Zardari.

Kerry introduced a bill in the US House of Representatives before he left that would triple economic assistance for Pakistan to about 6 billion euros (7.5 billion dollars) over five years.

That has not impressed Pakistan however.

But a statement from Yusuf Raza Gilani's office quoted the prime minister as saying that aid with strings attached would fail to generate the desired goodwill and results in Pakistan."

Although the bill meets some long-standing requests for military equipment, it requires the White House to certify that Pakistan is fighting terror and that its military and intelligence services do not support extremists.

Pakistan must also close all militant training camps in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and work to prevent cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

Relations between Pakistan and the United States should be based on "mutual respect and mutual trust and both sides should work together to reduce the trust deficit," Gilani said.

US officials have publicly criticised Pakistan's powerful intelligence services for allegedly supporting extremists.

Pakistan is also deeply opposed to drone attacks. ,About 37 drone strikes of have killed more than 360 people since August 2008.

Gilani said US drone attacks and so-called "collateral damage" impede Pakistan's efforts to eradicate Islamist militancy and terror.

Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari's office said the Pakistani leader had called financial aid essential and requested the swift passage of the aid bill, as well as legislation to create reconstruction opportunity zones in violence-torn tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.