Pakistan to re-open Khyber to supply Western forces

Maybe now that the Supply road has been reopened and our troops can get their supplies , Maybe the armed escorts will actually shoot these nimrods the next time they try and Hijack a convoy? A better idea , how about Pakistan , Try to be more consistent in which side they are going to be on ! That way we could know where we stand !

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan will reopen a main supply route to Western forces in Afghanistan on Monday, a week after militants hijacked more than a dozen trucks on the road through the Khyber Pass, a senior official said on Sunday.

Most supplies, including fuel, for U.S. and NATO forces in landlocked Afghanistan are trucked through Pakistan, much of it through the fabled pass that lies between the northwestern city of Peshawar and the border town of Torkham.

Over the course of last week, aside from the hijacking, militants in Peshawar carried out a suicide bomb attack, shot dead an American aid worker and his driver, kidnapped an Iranian diplomat and killed his police bodyguard, and shot and wounded a Japanese and an Afghan journalist working with foreign media.

Pakistan's support is seen as vital to the West's efforts to defeat al Qaeda globally and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

....

The unending violence has heightened fears that the nuclear-armed nation could slide into chaos unless its 8-month-old civilian government, also battling an economic crisis, and the army can turn the tide against the Islamist militants.

Pakistani authorities in the tribal region of Khyber blocked the main road from Peshawar through the pass to the border at Torkham soon after militants hijacked 13 trucks laden with Western military supplies on November 10.

A senior government administrator in Khyber, one of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal regions, told Reuters that truck convoys would start rolling again with armed escorts.

"Now they will be escorted by security personnel and vehicles," Fida Mohammad Bangash, the deputy political agent for Khyber, told Reuters.

CRIMINAL NEXUS

The result of the past week's interruption to traffic could be seen along Peshawar's ring road, where dozens of Humvees and trucks full of supplies for NATO forces lay parked in the open, with little security in evidence.

People in Jamrud, the main commercial hub in the Khyber Pass, say militants move freely in the area, and drive through on pick-up trucks half-an-hour before prayers, ordering shopkeepers to close and escorting them to mosques.

"We have virtually become hostage in the hands of Taliban. There is no security," Mohammad Shafiq, a Khyber resident, said, adding that militants controlled a corridor of 15 km (9 miles) either side of the road, and went virtually unchallenged by paramilitary troops stationed in the area.

Security forces were preparing for an operation to clean out militants and criminal gangs that operate in the hills overlooking the road winding through the pass, Bangash said.

The fiercely independent tribes in Khyber have long been known for their involvement in smuggling, running drugs and arms, and kidnapping.

more at reuters