US Halts Shipments From Afghanistan to Pakistan, Citing Protests

Pentagon Says Shutdown 'Voluntary'

Faced with massive anti-drone protests along the highway leading through the Khyber Pass, the Pentagon has announced that they are “voluntarily” suspending all US shipments of war materiel through Afghanistan into Pakistan, citing fear for the safety of the drivers.

The shipments are part of the drawdown planned in 2014, and the Pentagon says they anticipate the shipments to resume “in the near future” without any problems.

Oddly, there was no indication that shipments of war materiel through Pakistan into Afghanistan have been halted, and those are what the protesters are actually targeting.

The protests have been mostly peaceful, but on occasions when they first began some demonstrators roughed up drivers, leading to threats of police retaliation against them.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.