Pakistan reopens NATO supply route after brief halt

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan reopened a main NATO supply route to Afghanistan Monday after the road was briefly closed by a rebel rocket attack that killed one soldier and wounded 10 others, officials said.

Taliban militants launched the pre-dawn attack on a Pakistani paramilitary force camp in Landi Kotal town, near the Torkham border crossing, a local administration official said.

"The rebels fired eight rockets on the camp, killing one soldier and wounding 10 others," the official said, requesting anonymity.

Troops retaliated with an artillery and mortar attack against suspected militant hideouts on hills overlooking the main Peshawar-Torkham road, he said.

Details of any militant casualties were not immediately available, he said, adding that troops in a search operation later recovered a vehicle loaded with some arms and ammunition.

Traffic had to be suspended during the four-hour operation, from 7:00 am to 11:00 am (0200-0600 GMT), after which NATO trucks resumed their journey via the famed Khyber Pass, he said.

Pakistani security forces launched a major operation in the region three weeks ago to flush out militants from hideouts along the road.

The operation was mounted after a series of spectacular attacks on depots in and around the northwestern city of Peshawar, in which hundreds of vehicles used to ferry supplies to NATO and US forces in Afghanistan were torched.

The road passes through the heart of Pakistan's lawless tribal zone, where extremists have sought refuge after Afghanistan's hardline Taliban regime was ousted in a US-led invasion at the end of 2001.

Security forces last week also ordered a temporary closure of the road when they expanded their offensive from the town of Jamrud, the gateway to the Khyber Pass, into Landi Kotal.