Unidentified gunmen kill NATO driver in SW Pakistan

Unidentified gunmen in southwestern Pakistan have torched a NATO supply truck, killing the vehicle’s driver.

On Monday, four gunmen on motorbikes attacked the truck in Naseerabad district, situated some 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan Province.

Local sources said the truck was carrying NATO equipment out of Afghanistan when it was attacked.

The attackers managed to flee the scene before policemen cordoned off the area.

On November 6, two gunmen on a motorcycle killed a NATO supply truck driver in Khuzdar district of the volatile province.

Hundreds of NATO tankers and containers have been destroyed in different parts of Pakistan over the past few years.

Pro-Taliban militants often claim responsibility for such attacks, saying that the assaults are in retaliation for the US killer drone strikes on Pakistan’s tribal regions.

Despite frequent attacks on NATO supply convoys, the US military has not stopped its drone attacks on the Pakistani territory.

Washington claims the airstrikes target militants. However, figures show the attacks have led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Pakistan over the past few years.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has frequently condemned the US assassination drone strikes in his country, describing them as a violation of international law and the UN charter.

In September 2012, a report by the Stanford Law School and the New York University School of Law gave an alarming account of the effect that assassination drone strikes have on ordinary people in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

“The number of ‘high-level’ targets killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely low — estimated at just 2 percent,” the report noted.