NATO Supply Trucks Head For Afghanistan As Pakistan Reopens Route
NATO Supply Trucks Head For Afghanistan As Pakistan Reopens Route
Fuel tankers used to carry fuel for NATO forces in Afghanistan stand idle at a compound in Karachi in May.
Trucks carrying NATO supplies are expected to resume trips to Afghanistan on July 4 following Pakistan's decision to end a seven-month blockade.
Islamabad agreed to lift the blockade one day earlier after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered "sincere condolences" to Pakistan over air strikes that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.
“They did the right thing to open [the route]," a truck driver in Karachi told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal. "Now they should ensure its safety, and only the army can ensure the safety. Neither the police nor the security [forces] can do that."
Another driver, emphasizing the financial losses accrued during the seven-month blockade, told Mashaal that many of the hauliers didn't even have the money to return to their homes to sit out the suspension with their families.
PHOTO GALLERY: Hardship for hauliers as Pakistan's embargo on the NATO supply routes kept them waiting for a green light to resume their work:
In Pakistan, NATO Truckers Await Green Light
1/20Men walk past fuel tankers, used to transport fuel to NATO forces in Afghanistan, parked near oil terminals in the Pakistani port city of Karachi.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
2/20A man cleans a fuel tanker parked at a compound in Karachi on May 16, the day the Pakistani cabinet backed an agreement on reopening the supply route.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
3/20Tanker trucks parked near oil terminals in Karachi on May 15.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
4/20Laborers clean a tanker truck in Karachi ready to transport NATO goods on May 15.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
5/20NATO supply tankers gathered near oil terminals in the Pakistani port city of Karachi in 2011.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
6/20Fuel tankers are parked at a compound in Karachi on May 16.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
7/20Pakistan residents stand near fuel trucks that were set ablaze in the Bolan district of Balochistan Province in December.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
8/20Trucks block a highway that links the Pakistani city of Quetta with Kandahar, in Afghanistan.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
9/20Delays in November, with NATO-Pakistani relations in crisis over the death of 24 Pakistani troops in a NATO air strike earlier in the month.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
10/20Men remove logs near the site of burning oil tankers that were carrying supplies to foreign forces in Afghanistan after they were attacked on the outskirts of Quetta in October 2010.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
11/20A local watches fuel tankers burn from a median along the GT road in Nowshera, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, in October 2010.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
12/20Pakistani paramilitary troops stand guard as trucks carrying NATO supplies await clearance in Chaman in 2009.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
13/20A boy watches a plume of smoke rising from fuel trucks after they were attacked by unidentified gunmen on a highway near Shikarpur, Pakistan in 2011.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
14/20Pakistani trucks carrying NATO supplies to Afghanistan await clearance at Chaman on the Pakistani border with Afghanistan in 2009.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
15/20Residents stand near fuel trucks set ablaze in the Bolan district of Balochistan Province in Pakistan in December.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
16/20Smoke rises past residents standing on the wall of a truck terminal where NATO fuel tankers were set ablaze in Quetta in December.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
17/20Firefighters try to extinguish burning NATO supply trucks carrying military vehicles and oil after militants attack on the outskirts of Islamabad in June 2010.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
18/20Truck drivers wait after security forces stopped NATO supply trucks in Quetta and Chaman after a NATO raid on a checkpoint in Mahmand in late November.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
19/20Trucks halted by Pakistani authorities near the border with Afghanistan in late November.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
20/20Trucks carrying the supplies for NATO forces in southwestern Afghanistan await clearance at the Pakistani border with Afghanistan in Chaman in September 2009.
With Pakistan and the United States seemingly on the verge of an agreement to reopen ground supply lines into Afghanistan, haulers and their cargo were poised to restart the flow of fuel and other items that was interrupted more than five months ago. The NATO supply lines have long been a target for insurgents, with numerous attacks destroying countless trucks and costing lives.
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Islamabad had closed the supply routes in response to the botched strikes and made their reopening conditional on a U.S. apology.
The blockade had forced NATO to rely on longer, more expensive northern routes to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia.
U.S. officials said they expected supply trucks to begin crossing into Afghanistan within the next 24 hours.
The Pakistani Taliban, meanwhile, threatened to attack NATO trucks if they tried to resume supplies to troops in Afghanistan.
Based on reporting by AP and RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal
