Update: 171 vehicles damaged, one person killed as militants attack Nato supplies in Pakistan

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Update: 171 vehicles damaged, one person killed as militants attack Nato supplies in Pakistan

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At least 171 vehicles of the Afghanistan-based Nato forces were torched by attackers in two parking bays in the suburbs of Peshawar, the capital city of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province (NWFP), early Sunday morning.
The destroyed vehicles included 62 armoured personnel carriers (APCs). Around 130 vehicles were completely destroyed in the attack and 40 others were partially damaged.
The attack was the biggest ever on Nato supplies in Pakistan in which a watchman was killed and two others were injured for offering resistance to over 300 attackers, who were armed with rocket launchers, hand grenades, petrol bombs and AK-47 rifles.
Police encountered the fleeing attackers and there were reports that three of them were arrested but nobody confirmed it.
According to a worker at the Port World Logistics on Ring Road near Pishtakhara neighbourhood of Peshawar said 106 vehicles were parked in their parking lot. The vehicles included trucks, Humvees (an APC-like vehicle used by the American Army), cranes, fire brigade trucks and jeeps. Over 60 other vehicles were parked at another terminal located across the Ring Road.
A worker of the Port World Terminal recalled the predawn attack saying that over 300 armed men fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the main gate of the parking lot and after breaking in, opened indiscriminate fire on watchmen, killing one of them spot and injuring two others. He said the attackers later fired rockets at the parked vehicles, hurled petrol bombs and sprinkled fuel on the lories to set them ablaze.
Firing of rocket launchers and automatic weapons that started at around 3:15 a.m. (local time) continued for almost 45 minutes. Eyewitnesses said the attackers were relaxed and continued firing and torching the vehicles without any fear.
The fire that reduced vehicles and goods at the terminals to ashes could be extinguished at around 8 a.m. (local time).
The attack is second in the past week after a similar attack on December 1 when two drivers were killed and 15 Nato trucks were set on fire.
Earlier, the Nato trucks en route Afghanistan had also come under militants’ attack. The militants had snatched 18 Nato vehicles, including Humvees, in that incident. A Humvee is now being used by a newly emerged leader of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hakimullah Mahsud.
The TTP had warned of attacking Nato supplies through Pakistan if American forces did not stop missile strikes in tribal areas and parts of the NWFP. Since then, Nato trucks have been attacked twice.
Initial reports had said that three persons were killed in the attack but later it was confirmed that only one person died in the attack.