Three guards beheaded at NATO terminal in Pakistan

PESHAWAR–Militants early Friday beheaded three security guards at a NATO truck terminal and damaged 10 oil tankers in a restive Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

The murders took place at the NATO supply vehicle hub in Landi Kotal, a town in the restive Khyber tribal district where the bulk of supplies destined for foreign troops in Afghanistan pass through.

“Early Friday we found the beheaded bodies of three security guards from the NATO trucking terminal,” tribal administration official Iqbal Khan Khattak told AFP.

“The attackers also damaged 10 oil tankers with mortars and small arms fire, but there was no blaze as the tankers were empty and had returned from Afghanistan after delivering supplies,” Khattak said.

The drivers had parked up at the terminal on their return journey to stay overnight in nearby hotels, he said.

“It is the work of the militants,” Khattak replied when asked who could be behind the killings, alluding to numerous attacks that have targeted workers employed in re-supplying foreign forces based in Afghanistan.

Local intelligence officials confirmed the incident.

Pakistan shut its main northwestern border crossing to NATO supply vehicles for 11 days last September after a cross-border NATO helicopter assault killed two Pakistani soldiers.

Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants frequently launch attacks across northwestern Pakistan and the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, which Washington has branded the most dangerous place in the world.