NATO says Afghan war not hurt by supply route woes

Blotz said the Isaf operations within Afghanistan are not impeded by Pakistan's closure of the supply line.

Pakistan's closure of a key supply line for Nato-led troops fighting in Afghanistan, and militant attacks on tankers on a second route are not hurting the military effort in Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman said on Thursday.

Brigadier-General Josef Blotz, spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said a return to normal operations along both routes could be "closer" after the publication of a joint probe into a cross-border attack by US helicopters that led to the border closure.

"The Isaf operations here within Afghanistan, are not impeded at all by these incidents," Blotz said. "We do expect that with the closure of the assessment...we are closer to a resolution of all the problems."

The blocking of the two Nato supply routes by Pakistan to protest against repeated incursions by Nato helicopters from Afghanistan had raised concerns that the military effort in Afghanistan was being affected.

Last week, Isaf helicopters had violated Pakistani airspace several times and left two Pakistani soldiers dead and four others injured in the cross-borfer raids. Pakistan temporarily suspended overland Nato supplies to retaliate against repeated intrusions and killing of its personnel.

Isaf, in the joint probe, conceded that the incident could have been avoided had there been better coordination with the Pakistan military.

Earlier, the US-allied  forces insisted that the incident was unavoidable and that they had fired at the security check post in self-defence.

However, the Pakistan military did not agree with their assessment and forced them to admit they had made a mistake.