ISLAMABAD — At least eight persons were killed and another six injured when some 30 unknown gunmen reportedly attacked a NATO vehicle fleet comprising some 50 trucks carrying oil tankers and other essentials for supply in Afghanistan near Pakistan’s capital city of Islamabad late Tuesday night.
The attack took place in a parking lot at Tarnol area, some 50 kilometers southwest of Islamabad, at around 11:30 p.m. local time. Witnesses told Xinhua Wedesday the attackers opened the fire at the fleet parked there indiscriminately and then set the oil tankers on fire.
Shortly after the incident happened, the local police rushed to the site for rescue work and conducted a large scale search operation in the nearby area. Police sources said that some of the attackers have fled the site while 26 suspected people at the site were arrested.
The fire set on the NATO vehicle fleet has now been put off, said the police sources, adding the injured people have been shifted to a nearby hospital.
An official with the Islamabad police department said that ensuring safety of oil tankers is the responsibility of NATO. Witnesses told Xinhua when the attack was launched there was only one security guard at the parking lot to protect the NATO fleet parked there.
So far no organization has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik has ordered a probe into the incident and demanded a report on the attack in three days.
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