29 NATO supply trucks torched in Quetta

QUETTA: Up to 29 trucks were set ablaze after a rocket attack Thursday on a NATO trucking terminal in Quetta, officials said.

A number of oil tankers and goods trucks were parked in the temporary terminal after Pakistan shut down supply lines for troops in Afghanistan in anger at a deadly NATO cross-border air strike which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Senior police official Malik Arshad told AFP that unknown gunmen fired bullets and a rocket at the NATO oil tankers.

"We do not know about any casualties yet because the blaze is so huge," Arshad said.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack but the Taliban have in the past said they carried out similar attacks to disrupt supplies for the more than 130,000 US-led international troops fighting in Afghanistan.

Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants frequently launch attacks on NATO supply vehicles in the northwest and southwest regions of Pakistan, which border landlocked Afghanistan.

Most supplies and equipment required by foreign forces in Afghanistan are usually shipped through Pakistan, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through Central Asia.

NATO has launched an investigation into the raid last month in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed. (AFP)