Kabul: Gunmen killed nine Afghan workers who were guarding a Nato supply convoy in the south of the country, police said yesterday.
The attack in Gereshk district happened on Sunday night, said the deputy police chief for Helmand province, Kamaluddin Khan. Military supply convoys are regularly attacked in Afghanistan, where they are seen as an easier target for insurgents than Nato bases.
The shootings come about a week after trucks bearing Nato supplies for troops began flowing again through the important Khyber Pass crossing from Pakistan into Afghanistan. Pakistan had closed the Torkham crossing in protest at a Nato helicopter strike that killed two Pakistani border guards.
During the 11-day blockade, about 150 trucks were destroyed and some drivers and police were injured in near-daily attacks in Pakistan.
Other routes
Nato, however, said its supplies were not interrupted as it simply sent supplies through other routes — such as crossings in the west or further south.
Separately, airstrikes by international coalition forces killed up to 14 suspected insurgents. An airstrike in northern Baghlan province reportedly killed around 10 people on Sunday, a Nato statement said.
It had targeted a leader accused of planting bombs and supplying cash and weapons to Taliban leaders in the area. However, Nato was not able to confirm the number of casualties because neither international or Afghan soldiers could get to the area.
Another airstrike in southern Nimroz province killed four fighters who were planting a bomb, said provincial police chief Abdul Jabar Pardeli.
A Taliban commander was among those killed by Sunday night's strike, he said.
Violence has risen in the south of the country as Nato and Afghan forces have for months attempted to push insurgents from their strongholds in the Taliban heartland of Kandahar.
