Pakistan blocks fuel supply route to Western forces

By Saad Khan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan blocked a major fuel supply route for Western forces in Afghanistan on Saturday in response to a raid by U.S. forces into northwest Pakistan this week, the defence minister said.

U.S. commandos attacked suspected militants inside Pakistani territory on Wednesday, killing 20 people including women and children, Pakistani officials said, and drawing a furious response from the Pakistani government.

"We have told them that we will take action and we have already taken action today. We have stopped the supply of oil and this will tell how serious we are," Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar told Dawn Television.

Fuel supplies have been blocked from crossing through the main crossing point at Torkham on the Pakistani-Afghan border near Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province.

Earlier, an official in the northwest said the fuel was being stopped temporarily because of worries about security on the Pakistani side. Militants have been attacking trucks in the Khyber Pass, on the way to Torkham.

The decision to block fuel crossing the border at Torkham illustrates just how vulnerable supplies for U.S. and other foreign forces in Afghanistan are.

Most fuel and other supplies for U.S. forces in Afghanistan are trucked through Pakistan, crossing the border at two points: Torkham and Chaman, to the southwest.

The Chaman crossing, where supplies bound for foreign forces in the Afghan south, particularly Kandahar, pass in from Pakistan, was operating normally on Saturday.