Supply routes to Afghanistan
A few weeks ago I commented on the overland supply routes used by ISAF / NATO and USA via Pakistan, found just:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071114/...15GzQeG1Cs0NUE
The interesting part I quote:
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the supply lines are "very real areas of concern" because about 75 percent of the supplies, including 40 percent of vehicle fuel supplies, either go through or over Pakistan.
"We hope it doesn't come to this," Morrell told reporters. "Right now we've seen no indications that any of our supply lines have been impacted."
davidbfpo
Supply routes to Afghanistan
Interesting McClatchy story on Khyber Agency:
U.S. Afghan supply lines depend on Islamic militant - McClatchy, 25 April.
Quote:
The only thing standing between Pakistan's Taliban and the lifeline for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan may be an Islamist warlord who controls the area near Pakistan's famed Khyber Pass.
In an interview with McClatchy, Mangal Bagh, who leads a group called Lashkar-i-Islam, voiced his disdain for America but said he's rebuffed an offer from the Taliban to join them.
Truckloads of food, equipment and fuel for NATO troops wind through the Khyber Pass daily to the bustling border at Torkham. Last month, Taliban fighters bombed fuel trucks waiting at Torkham to cross into Afghanistan, and last week, fighting between Bagh's men and a pocket of Taliban resistance closed the highway for several days.
Locals said that Bagh wouldn't allow Taliban fighters to cross into the Khyber agency, which is part of Pakistan's tribal belt and is now largely under his control ...
Bagh's stance has led to allegations that he has ties to Pakistani authorities or to the country's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
One of the senior members of Lashkar-i-Islam, Mistry-Sahib, denied any connection with the Pakistan state.
"We don't want to fight the government (unlike the Taliban); it is our country," said Mistry. "We just want peace in our area. We have no connection with the government because their policies are not right."
Pakistani authorities appear to have withdrawn from Bara and much of Khyber agency, and they've taken no recent action to rein in Bagh ...
Supply routes to Afghanistan
Following this BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7769758.stm
I thought a thread on this subject appropriate.
The reliance upon the use of Karachi port and private hauliers (trucks) to take supplies into Afghanistan, mainly via the Khyber Pass, has appeared in other threads before. One citation was that 90% of all supplies came this way; I suspect some European NATO partners use another route, which I suspect is via Iran.
Reliance = vulnerabilituy and without Pakistani agreement I fail to see how our campaign in Afghanistan can continue.
I am aware that attacks have happened before and that the Pakistani authorities have twice recently temporarily closed the Khyber Pass.
SWJ reactions?
Problem, no question -- and likley to
get worse before it gets better. The alternative route through Russia is unlikely to fill the void.
Taliban storm two Peshawar trucking terminals, 160 NATO vehicles torched
Anyone else catch this?
Quote:
http://www.longwarjournal.org/images...l-12072008.jpg
The Taliban launched military assaults on two shipping terminals in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, destroying more than 160 NATO military vehicles and supplies destined for Afghanistan. Security in the northwestern city is deteriorating as the Taliban seeks to control the region and shut down NATO's logistical chain to Afghansitan.
The first attack took place at the Portward Logistic Terminal. An estimated 200 to 300 Taliban fighters fired rockets at the front gate, destroying the entrance and leveling the wall. The nine security guards on duty fled in the face of the massed Taliban attack.
Taliban fighters then fired rocket propelled grenades into the compound and proceeded to set fire to the NATO vehicles parked inside. "There were dozens of them. They started firing, they used rockets, causing a lot of damage," the manager of the shipping terminal told the Associated Press.
The Taliban force rampaged in the compound for more than forty minutes before Peshawar police responded. The Taliban force disengaged after clashing with the police, leaving the terminal in ruins. "They were shouting Allahu Akbar (God is Great) and Down With America," a security guard told Reuters.
The attack was devastating.
One security guard was killed and at least 106 NATO vehicles, including more than 70 Humvees, were destroyed. "In this incident 96 flat trucks and six containers were destroyed, including a 40-foot container," the terminal manager said. "Also armored jeeps, trucks and fire brigade vehicles."
A second attack took place at the Al Faisal Terminal. A large Taliban force stormed the terminal after overwhelming the security guards. Three Pakistanis, including the terminal watchman, were killed in the attack.
Sixty-two Humvees and other vehicles were reported destroyed in the attack.
(emphasis mine)
So 130 M1114's at over $1 mil apiece were destroyed?!?! Holy Sh*t.:eek::mad:
Same one Davidfpo posted earlier
in the thread where you said your Dad mentioned the pilferage going through the Black sea, I think...
The attacks: 1 Dec, 7 Dec & 8 Dec - the local view
Here are three reports giving the local viewpoint. If "500 hardened militants" can storm Peshawar (last report), the Pakis have a real governance problem there.
Quote:
Militants torch 150 NATO trucks in Pakistan, kill guard
December 7th, 2008 - 11:32 pm ICT by IANS -
Islamabad, Dec 7 (DPA) Some 300 heavily-armed rebels attacked two parking bays in north-western Pakistan full of vehicles used by US and NATO contractors for making deliveries to Afghanistan, killing a guard and torching dozens of trucks, the police said Sunday.The attack took place in the early hours at Al-Faisal International and Port World Logistics terminals on the outskirts of Peshawar city, where the trucks are parked at night. ....
....
The attack on the Al-Faisal and World Port terminals was the second this week. On Monday [1 Dec], rebels killed two drivers and destroyed at least a dozen lorries loaded with NATO supplies in a pre-dawn attack.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/...100128255.html
Quote:
Militants torch 50 NATO trucks in Pakistan (Lead)
December 8th, 2008 - 7:21 pm ICT by IANS -
Islamabad Dec 8 (IANS) Another 50 trucks carrying goods for US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan were torched by militants Monday morning, bringing to more than 200 the total number of vehicles in less than 48 hours.Officials confirmed that this was the second attack in less than 48 hours in which several military vehicles and other military supplies were gutted to ash. Though there is no claim by any militants groups, Pakistani security forces said that Taliban are apparently behind the attacks on the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital of the restive North West Frontier Province.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/...100128598.html
Quote:
Peshawar heading on Beiruts path
December 8th, 2008 - 1:49 pm ICT by ANI -
Peshawar, Dec.8 (ANI): Peshawar is once again in the news, but for all the wrong reasons.
Last week, a car blast rocked the historic Qisakhawani bazaar killing three people and injuring several others. Then, trucks carrying NATO supplies were set on fire by extremists December 7.
....
This was the second attack within a week on the terminal in Peshawar. On December 1, two persons were killed and over two dozen trucks were damaged when militants attacked the complex.
....
High profile kidnapping and murders have added to the fears of Peshawar residents. There are fears in Peshawar that over 500 hardened militants camping in Khyber Agency may storm it in the near future.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/...100128382.html
Sounds something like early Vietnam when the B-57s were mortared on their ramps - Bien Hoa Air Base, 1 Nov 1964 - pic and story here and here.
Northern route partially reopened
..with more to come in "weeks, not months."
Quote:
Nato plans to open a new supply route to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia in the next eight weeks following a spate of attacks on its main lifeline through Pakistan this year, Nato and Russian sources have told The Times.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the former Soviet Central Asian states that lie between Russia and Afghanistan, have agreed in principle to the railway route and are working out the small print with Nato, the sources said.
“It'll be weeks rather than months,” said one Nato official. “Two months max.”
From the same article, a third route:
Quote:
However, Nato and the United States are simultaneously in talks on opening a third supply route through the secretive Central Asian state of Turkmenistan to prevent Russia from gaining a stranglehold on supplies to Afghanistan, the sources said. Non-lethal supplies, including fuel, would be shipped across the Black Sea to Georgia, driven to neighbouring Azerbaijan, shipped across the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan and then driven to the Afghan border.
The week-long journey along this “central route” would be longer and more expensive than those through Pakistan or Russia and would leave supplies vulnerable to political volatility in the Caucasus and Turkmenistan.