Militants torch Nato supply oil trucks in Quetta

QUETTA: Gunmen in Quetta on Tuesday set ablaze eight trucks carrying fuel supplies for NATO forces fighting Taliban insurgents in neighbouring Afghanistan, officials said.

The attacks took place on the eastern outskirts of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas rich Baluchistan province bordering Iran and Afghanistan, where Taliban militants are active.

"Six gunmen riding on three motorcycles first sprayed bullets on the trucks, which triggered the fire," local police official Qasim Ishaqzai told media.

A senior security official in the area confirmed the incident, but said nobody had yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Pakistan is also battling an insurgency by Islamist rebels, with Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants holed up in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, often slipping across the border to attack foreign forces there.

NATO and US-led forces in landlocked Afghanistan are hugely dependent on Pakistan for supplies, with about 80 percent passing through Pakistan.

The bulk of supplies and equipment required by foreign troops is shipped through northwest Pakistan's tribal region of Khyber, where Taliban militants have carried out a series of attacks on trucks.