NATO trucks attacked in Pakistan; bomber kills 8

1. December 2008, 01:32

By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press Writer
PESHAWAR, Pakistan –

Pakistani fighters in northwestern Pakistan attacked trucks ferrying supplies to NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Monday, killing two people and destroying a dozen vehicles, witnesses and police said.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber killed eight people and wounded 40 others at a military checkpoint in the region's Swat Valley, police said.

The attack on the U.S.-led coalition trucks took place at a terminal in Peshawar, which sits along the supply route from Pakistan to Afghanistan. The city has seen an upsurge in violence in recent weeks, including the slaying of an American working on a U.S.-funded aid project.

Several gunmen fired rockets and automatic weapons at the Faisal terminal, killing a driver and a clerk and destroying 12 trucks, said police officer Ahsanullah Khan.

An AP Television News reporter saw two Humvee military vehicles on board the trucks that were on fire following the attack.

Up to 75 percent of the supplies for Western forces in landlocked Afghanistan pass through Pakistan. Earlier this month, suspected Taliban fighters hijacked several trucks carrying Humvees near the Khyber Pass.

Pakistan halted traffic along the road for several days while it arranged for armed troops to guard the slow-moving convoys.

On Saturday, Pakistani security officials said they would withdraw troops from the volatile northwest if India were to mobilize its forces close to the Pakistan border following the Mumbai attacks — an alarming scenario for the West as it tries to get Islamabad to focus on the al-Qaida threat.

Pakistani troops are battling the Taliban fighters in at least two regions, including the Swat Valley, the scene of Monday's suicide attack.

The bomber detonated his car while queuing up at the checkpoint, a military officer at the Swat media center said on customary condition of anonymity.

"Two passengers vehicles received the major thrust of the explosion and were badly smashed up," he said.

Police officer Dilawar Bangash said eight people were killed and 40 wounded.

The identities of the dead were not known.

Gunmen on motorbike shoot dead Afghan official

1. December 2008, 01:33
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) –

Gunmen on a motorbike killed a district chief in central Afghanistan on Monday, a provincial spokesman said.

Abdul Rahim Desewal was shot dead as he left his house in Ghazni city, capital of central Ghazni province, said Sayed Ismail Jahangir, spokesman for the provincial governor. Desewal's bodyguard was wounded in the attack.

The gunmen fled the scene after the shooting, Jahangir said.

Desewal was the chief of Andar district in Ghazni province, an area of intense militant activity.

It was not clear who was responsible, but Taliban fighters regularly assassinate government officials in their attempt to weaken the grip of President Hamid Karzai's administration in the provinces.