MIRANSHAH (AFP/Reuters) - Taliban threatened late Tuesday to attack Nato supply trucks and kill its drivers if they tried to resume supplies to troops in Afghanistan, a spokesman said.
Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP the Taliban “will not allow any truck to pass and will attack it,” hours after Pakistan confirmed it had decided to reopen vital Nato supply routes into Afghanistan which have been closed since November. “We will not allow anyone to use Pakistani soil to transport supplies that will be used against the Afghan people,” the group’s spokesman told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
“We will not only attack the supply truck but will also kill the drivers (of Nato supply trucks),” Ehsan added.
On Tuesday Pakistan announced it would reopen the routes shut on November 26 when an American aircraft mistakenly killed 24 Pakistan soldiers. Their closure aggravated already difficult relations between Washington and Islamabad.
Prior to the closure Taliban carried out dozens of attacks, disrupting supplies for 130,000 US-led Nato troops fighting in Afghanistan, and have repeatedly warned of more if Pakistan reopened supply routes. The routes are increasingly important as Nato prepares to withdraw all combat troops from Afghanistan in 2014.
Following the official announcement Nato truckers said they feared more attacks and demanded security guarantees before the resumption of the supply routes.
Pakistan’s announcement came shortly after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Pakistan was re-opening the routes and that the United States was “sorry” for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military in November.
Earlier, Pakistan’s new prime minister acknowledged that continuing the seven-month blockade was negatively affecting relations with the United States and other NATO member states.
Meanwhile, Afghan and NATO-led forces killed as many as 82 Taliban in seven provinces within a 24-hour period, Afghan officials said Tuesday. The Interior Ministry said in a statement eight insurgents were injured and four others detained during the raids in Kabul, Jawzjan, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Wardak, Logar and Ghazni provinces. The joint forces also found and seized weapons, the statement said.
An Australian special forces soldier was killed in Uruzgan province Monday, bringing to 33 the number of Australians killed in the conflict, Khaama Press reported.
Lt-Gen David Hurley of the Australian military said Tuesday the soldier was killed during an operation involving Australian and Afghan troops targeting an insurgent commander. The trooper, on his seventh tour to Afghanistan in 11 years, was hit during a small arms firefight.Also Monday, officials said Taliban carried out a suicide car bombing Monday, killing seven civilians and injuring 23 others in Kandahar province, NNI said.
More than 1,500 insurgents have been killed and more than 1,950 others detained since the beginning of the year by joint forces.