Seven dead as gunmen torch Nato trucks near Pakistani capital

Gunmen attacked trucks carrying supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan, gutting several dozen vehicles in an inferno and killing seven people in a brazen assault near Islamabad, police said yesterday.

The overnight attack was unprecedented for its proximity to the Pakistani capital, taking place at a depot on the outskirts of Islamabad on the road to the northwestern city of Peshawar and towards the main Nato supply route into Afghanistan.

Although militants have routinely attacked supplies for US and Nato-led foreign forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, the assault was one of the worst and underlines insecurity on the doorstep of the heavily-guarded capital. Rows of tankers and trucks were reduced to a twisted mass of metal after the towering inferno at the Tarnol depot was brought under control, including a dozen loaded with military vehicles, television footage showed.

"Seven deaths have been confirmed. Four are injured. There is no information about any arrests," said police official Gustasab Khan. The casualties were the drivers of the trucks, their helpers or local people, he said.

Police could not give a breakdown on the number of tankers and containers destroyed at the sprawling Tarnol depot, which is also used by local vehicles.