Pakistani firemen beside the tankers carrying fuel for Nato troops set alight by suspected militants Pakistani firefighters stand beside the 27 tankers carrying fuel for Nato troops that were set alight by suspected militants. Photograph: Aaron Favila/AP
Suspected militants in Pakistan set fire to more than two dozen tankers carrying fuel for Nato troops in Afghanistan today, officials said.
The attack came a day after three soldiers were killed in a cross-border Nato air strike.
Angry at repeated incursions by Nato helicopters over the past week, Pakistan has blocked a supply route for coalition troops in Afghanistan.
Pakistan is a crucial ally for the United States in its efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, but analysts say border incursions and disruptions in Nato supplies underline growing tensions in the relationship.
A senior Pakistani intelligence official said the border incursions could lead to a "total snapping of relations".
Senior officials blamed extremists for the attack on the tankers in the southern town of Shikarpur.
About 12 people, their faces covered, fired into the air to scare away the drivers, then set fire to 27 tankers.
"Some of them have been completely destroyed and others partially. But there is no loss of human life," the Shikarpur police chief, Abdul Hameed Khoso, told Reuters.
The tankers were parked at a filling station on their way to Afghanistan from Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi.
The previous day, three Pakistani soldiers were killed and three wounded in two cross-border strikes by Nato forces chasing militants in Pakistan's north-western Kurram region.
It was the third cross-border incident in a week, the Pakistan military said. Nato said the helicopters briefly crossed into Pakistani airspace after coming under fire from people there.
Hours later, Pakistani authorities halted tankers carrying supplies for the Nato forces passing through the Khyber tribal region on the Afghan border.
About half of all cargo for Nato forces in Afghanistan travels through Pakistan, most of it via two main border crossings: Chaman north of Quetta in Baluchistan, and Torkham at the Khyber Pass.
Another third enters Afghanistan through the northern distribution network across Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Sensitive gear such as ammunition, weapons and critical equipment is flown in.
Officials say supplies for Nato forces through Chaman continue uninterrupted.
Also today, a United Nations relief helicopter with 12 people on board went down in a lake in a flood-affected area of Pakistan's southern province of Sindh, a UN official said.
Initial reports said seven people had been injured and officials said the accident was probably mechanical.
Pakistan has been in the international spotlight this week after western intelligence sources said a militant plot to stage co-ordinated attacks in Europe had been disrupted by a recent increase in missile strikes by US drones in Pakistan.
Pakistani security officials said they had no evidence of any specific terror plot being hatched in the tribal areas, described by the US as a global hub of militants. Most of the recent drone strikes have taken place in the north-western North Waziristan region.
"It's no secret that there are terrorists from all nationalities in North Waziristan. They are Arabs, Uzbeks, Pakistani, Afghan, Chechans, German, Brits, Americans, everyone. And they are a threat to us, to their own countries and to the entire world," a senior security official said.
"But to say that we have any specific information that they were plotting attacks against this country or that country, then sir, we don't have any concrete information or intelligence about that."
He said drones strikes had killed members of various militant groups.
In September up to 21 US drone attacks have killed at least 100 militants. It was the most intense month for drone attacks to date.
