Gunmen torch 2 NATO oil tankers in SW Pakistan

[April 06, 2011]  QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) -- Gunmen torched two NATO oil tankers Wednesday in southwestern Pakistan as they traveled to Afghanistan, police said.

Police official Aziz Ahmad said the attack happened in the district of Bolan in southwestern Baluchistan province. He gave no more details and did not elaborate on the fate of the drivers.

Militants and criminals often attack trucks carrying supplies for U.S. and NATO forces, but the strikes do not impact on the war effort there, coalition commanders say. The supplies arrive in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi and travel overland to neighboring Afghanistan.

Also Wednesday, four boys were killed by an abandoned explosive device that went off in northwest Pakistan.

The children were playing near a pond in the town of Kohat when the device, possibly a mortar, went off.

Local government official Khalid Khan Umarzai said the blast appeared to be an accident.

Many parts of northwest Pakistan have seen battles between the army and militants over the last three years. Discarded munitions or mortars and rockets that failed to exploded are often found. Primitive land mines are also a favored weapon of the insurgents.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.