Taliban attack NATO supplies in Afghan east, destroy dozens of trucks

[June 19, 2014]  KABUL (Reuters) - Four Taliban militants struck a NATO post in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Thursday, destroying dozens of trucks and sparking a gun battle with polices, Afghan officials said.

The attack took place in the parking compound of a NATO base near the Torkham crossing on the Pakistani border, near the Khyber Pass and a main supply route for NATO-led forces in land-locked Afghanistan.

Militants on both sides of the border have for years been attacking supplies bound for NATO-led forces in Afghanistan.

Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said one attacker blew himself up while police killed the other three.

He said 37 trucks containing fuel and other supplies were destroyed in explosions set off by the attackers.
 

One Afghan driver was injured, a witness told Reuters.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid confirmed that the militants, fighting to expel foreign forces and bring down the U.S.-backed Kabul government, were behind the attack.

Afghanistan's Taliban have sustained a high level of violence even though most foreign troops are due to pull out of the country this year leaving Afghan security forces to face the insurgents on their own.

Taliban fighters killed scores of people in attacks on Saturday on a second-round, run-off presidential election.

Afghanistan's allies hope the election can usher in a strong, stable government but accusations of cheating have raised fears of a deadlock between the two rival candidates, both of whom support a security pact with the United States.

The Taliban dismissed the vote as a U.S. ploy.

(Reporting by Rafiq Sherzad in Nangarhar and Abdulaziz Ibrahim in Kabul; Writing by Praveen Menon; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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