Agence France-Presse,
Islamabad: The US military has acquired additional supply routes for coalition forces in Afghanistan, the top US general for southwest Asia said Tuesday, following a slew of attacks on supply depots in Pakistan.
The United States has reached agreements with Central Asian states for extra logistical routes into Afghanistan from the north, said General David Petraeus, who commands US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The move came after a series of attacks on depots in and around Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar, where hundreds of vehicles used to ferry supplies to NATO and US forces in Afghanistan from the south were torched.
“It is very important, as we increase effort in Afghanistan, that we have multiple routes that go into the country,” Petraeus told reporters after talks with Pakistani leaders in Islamabad.
The US military said last month it would send reinforcements of 20,000 to 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, where about 70,000 international troops are fighting alongside Afghan security forces against an extremist insurgency.
Petraeus noted traffic had been flowing “generally freely” through the Khyber Pass with a couple of “interruptions” in recent weeks.
“But we have sought sought additional logistical routes into Afghanistan from the north,” he said.
The road from Peshawar to the Torkham border crossing passes through Pakistan's lawless tribal zone, where extremists have sought refuge since the hardline Taliban regime in Kabul was ousted in the 2001 US-led invasion.
Before arriving in Pakistan, Petraeus said he had visited Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to reach agreements.
“We were in these countries to solidify understandings and reach agreements on so-called northern lines of communication. These are logistical lines that support the effort in Afghanistan through the north.
“There have been agreements reached and there are transit lines now and transit agreements for commercial goods and services in particular that include several countries in the Central Asian states and also Russia,” he said.
Pakistani security forces launched a major operation in the region more than three weeks ago to flush out militants from hideouts along the road.
Security forces had to close the road temporarily last week when they expanded their offensive from the town of Jamrud, the gateway to the Khyber Pass, into Landi Kotal town near the Torkham border crossing.
