Attacks on Afghan supply lines hurt NATO war effort

By Jon Hemming

KABUL (Reuters) - Attacks on military supplies coming to Afghanistan are just one tactic of the widening Taliban insurgency, but one that forces Western nations to deal with the geopolitical reality of fighting a war in a landlocked nation.

The Taliban declared they would increase attacks on troop supply lines this year, repeating a strategy the mujahideen used against Soviet forces in the 1980s and even against the British in Kabul in the 1840s. So far they have lived up to their word.

The U.S. military sends 75 percent of supplies for the Afghan war through or over Pakistan, including 40 percent of the fuel for its troops, the DefenceDepartment said.

"You essentially have to face the fact that bulk cargo moves to Pakistani ports by sea and bulk cargo moves best by road," said Anthony Cordesman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

"If you have to do this through air lift, it puts a tremendous strain on U.S. Air Force and U.S. air mobility assets to move very ordinary equipment and goods," he said.

There are only two major routes into Afghanistan from the main Pakistani port of Karachi, one via the Khyber Pass to the north and the other through the town of Chaman to the southwest linking to the southern Afghan city of Kandahar.

Both routes have come under attack with dozens of fuel trucks torched this year and four U.S. helicopter engines worth more than $13 million (8.49 million pounds) stolen in September. This week 13 lorries carrying two Humvees and tonnes of food were stolen.

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