Another day of border closures in Pakistan has led to another flurry of attacks against NATO oil tankers stuck in the country awaiting reconciliation after last week’s NATO killing of three border troops. Today, the toll was at least three people killed, another eight wounded, and 20 more tankers burned.
The attacks come just a day after a previous attack in Islamabad which saw 28 other tankers destroyed and six more people killed. Today’s attacks also included a strike against a number of tankers parked in Islamabad.
Militant factions have launched a number of attacks against the tankers over the years, as NATO has relied on the route through the Khyber Pass for the vast majority of its supplies in landlocked Afghanistan. Since the closure five days ago the attacks have spiked, and popular opposition for the NATO attack makes it politically difficult for local security officials to go out of their way to protect the tankers.
The Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed credit for a number of the larger attacks, saying they were in retaliation for both the drone strikes and the attacks by helicopter. NATO today apologized for the helicopter killings but the drone attacks have continued unabated.