Pakistan Reopens Afghan Force Supply Route

Pakistani supply routes from the port of Karachi to land-locked Afghanistan are vital for Western forces battling a resurgent Taliban.

Supplies to Western forces in Afghanistan through Pakistan's Khyber Pass were briefly suspended on Monday after militants attacked an army camp, killing a paramilitary soldier and wounding 10, an official said.

Pakistani supply routes from the port of Karachi to land-locked Afghanistan are vital for Western forces battling a resurgent Taliban.

They are likely to become even more important as the United States builds up its Afghanistan force, perhaps doubling it to 60,000 soldiers, this year.

A government official in Khyber said early on Monday supplies through the pass had been suspended indefinitely after militants attacked a military camp with rocket-propelled grenades.

But he later said the route had been reopened after security forces captured 10 men suspected of carrying out the attack.

"The road is open. We have lifted the curfew but our operation against the militants is still going on," said the official, Zar Bacha Khan.

The U.S. military sends 75 percent of supplies for the Afghan war through or over Pakistan, including 40 percent of the fuel for its troops, the U.S. Defence Department says.

Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks on the main route through the Khyber Pass since last year and security forces responded with an offensive in late December to clear militants off the route.

The Sunday night attack was the most serious in the region since then.

The other Pakistani supply route is through the border of Chaman, southwest of Khyber, to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. There have been very few attacks on the Pakistani section of that route but more on the Afghan side.

Western forces in Afghanistan have played down the impact of the disruption caused by the violence in Khyber, saying they have stockpiles of supplies.

Nevertheless, the attacks have exposed the vulnerability of the supply chain and forced NATO to look for alternative routes, including through Central Asia into northern Afghanistan.