Two dead as NATO oil tanker torched in Dasht

QUETTA: Two people were killed when gunmen torched an oil tanker carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan in the Dasht area of Balochistan on Tuesday, officials said.

Gunmen on a motorbike fired at the vehicle then set it on fire in the Dasht suburb of the provincial capital Quetta, local administration official Saeed Kurd told AFP.

The driver and his helper were killed as they could not escape the burning vehicle, he said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but the Taliban has in the past said it carried out similar attacks to disrupt supplies to the more than 130,000 US-led international troops fighting in Afghanistan.

Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants frequently launch attacks on NATO supply vehicles in the northwest and southwest regions of the country, which border landlocked Afghanistan.

Most supplies and equipment required by foreign forces in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistan, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through Central Asia.