US embarrassed as Taliban steal Humvees

[GAP]

US embarrassed as Taliban steal Humvees
Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | November 12, 2008 Article from:  The Australian
Article Link

TALIBAN militants were driving around in captured US army Humvee armoured vehicles in Pakistan's tribal region close to the historic Khyber Pass last night after hijacking more than a dozen supply trucks travelling along the vital land route that supplies coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The capture of the Humvees - these days the symbol of US intervention in Iraq and elsewhere - is a serious embarrassment to US commanders of the coalition forces.

Pakistani reporters in the area said the militants unloaded the Humvees from shipping containers on the backs of the trucks and drove off in them, after decorating them with flags and banners of the banned umbrella organisation Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which is led by Baitullah Mehsud. Mehsud is closely allied to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

The reporters said the hijackings had taken place "in clear view of (Pakistani) paramilitary personnel" deployed at the nearby Jamrud Fort, who "did not take any action".

"All this happened on the international highway (linking Pakistan with Afghanistan) and you can imagine the implications this can have for us," an official told Pakistan newspaper Dawn.

Pakistan army helicopter gunships were later sent to the area, but by then the trucks had been released by the militants, who had decamped with the Humvees as well as bags of wheat.

The hijacking of the supply trucks - and the embarrassment of seeing the militants driving around the area in the Humvees - came amid fast-mounting concern about the security of thevital land route through Pakistan that serves the 35,000-strong coalition force fighting in Afghanistan.

The supply trucks were seized by the militants along a 35km stretch of the narrow, switchback road through the Khyber Pass, the main gateway for essential supplies shipped under cover to the Pakistani port city of Karachi.

More than 350 trucks travel through the perilous pass each day, carrying supplies to Afghanistan, many of them with consignments destined for the coalition forces.

More than 24 transport trucks and oil tankers have reportedly been attacked in the area in the past month as militants have stepped up their assaults on the road convoys, causing serious concern to NATO commanders.

Last weekend, two coalition warplanes, backed by ground artillery from gun emplacements across the border in Afghanistan, crossed into Pakistani territory to attack militants seen in the Tirah valley, close to the Khyber Pass, in what appeared to be a pre-emptive strike against possible attacks on the vital road link.

Pakistani forces have also launched major offensives around the North West Frontier Province's capital, Peshawar, in an attempt to drive back militants threatening the road.

The militants have responded by launching rocket attacks on Peshawar airport, which is regularly used by civilian aircraft.
More on link

 

[tomahawk6]

The next pred target.

 

[karl28]

              Some how I doubt the US are worried to much about losing a couple of Humveess  .  To bad they didn't have some sort of tracking device on the Humvees that way they could just take them out  when found .

 

[Colin Parkinson]

They will worry as the Taliban might use them to sneak up on a US position.

 

[CougarKing]

              Some how I doubt the US are worried to much about losing a couple of Humveess  .   To bad they didn't have some sort of tracking device on the Humvees that way they could just take them out  when found .

Reminds me of the ones Russia took from Georgian troops as war spoils a few months ago.

U.S. Humvee, seized in Georgia.

 

[s23256]

Considering the amount of what appeared to be US hardware (MRAP/HUMMWV) I saw being shipped around in local transport, I'm actually surprised this hasn't happened earlier/more frequently.

 

[xavier]

Gap:
What's more embarrassing- or frustrating- is how the U.S. and NATO seemed to be complacent about the shipment being captured in the first place. Personally I'd've authourized an immediate strike. Yeah, yeah the Pakistani government would've jumped up and down like a organ grinder's monkey shrieking about sovereignty but quietly, the officials would've been relieved.
It's too bad that we're so dependent with Pakistan in the first place while India doesn't have any geographical connection to Afganistan.

xavier

 

[tomahawk6]

The humvee's the bad guys have look to be Pakistani.

 

[geo]

From a personal perspective... I sould suggest to the US authorities that ALL vehicles shipped thru Pakistan should have concealed tracking devices "on board"..... if the TB & AQ want to steal the trucks... be my guest... be don't be surprised when the Predator or Reaper comes a calling.

Sisss... BOOM... Bah - another bunch goes to Allah

 

[Old Sweat]

Check the footwear on the two on the right of the photo as we face it.

 

[twistedcables]

In full view of Pak paramil personnel who did nothing you say.  They just let the HUMVEEs go you say.

Hmmmm.....almost like it was on purpose.

So a few days later, when the HUMVEES get closer to the leadership of the perpetrators and the "ears" are still operatinal, listen for the WHOOSH and BOOM.

Nothing is what it seems....

 

[tomahawk6]

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_supplylines_111708/

U.S. trucks get escorts in Pakistan

By RIAZ KHAN - The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Nov 17, 2008 16:46:55 EST
 
KHYBER PASS, Pakistan — Pakistan sent troops armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns to escort trucks Monday along a major supply route for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, part of new security measures to combat militant attacks.

The paramilitary guards traveled in pickups alongside convoys as they snaked their way up Pakistan’s Khyber Pass, an increasingly perilous 30-mile stretch. The response indicated Pakistan was taking seriously the threats to a route critical to Western forces battling Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, as well as ordinary criminals, are behind escalating violence in large parts of Pakistan’s northwest regions bordering Afghanistan, including the Khyber region.

Pakistan stopped container trucks and oil tankers from using the pass last week after dozens of suspected Taliban militants hijacked trucks carrying Humvees bound for the U.S.-led coalition.

Before Monday, the some 300 or 400 supply trucks that traverse the passage daily had little or no security and were subject to frequent attacks, truck drivers say.

It was not possible to say what was being transported in Monday morning’s convoy. Military supplies usually travel in sealed, unmarked containers. The pass is also a major civilian trade route.

Some analysts and Western officials have doubted Pakistan’s willingness or ability to flush out militancy from its borders, amid outrage in the South Asian nation over U.S. missile strikes on extremists in its northwest region.

But in recent interviews with The Associated Press, Pakistan’s prime minister and president brushed off the notion that they would subvert the Khyber supply route as a pressure tactic in the uneasy alliance.

It was unclear how effective the escorts from the paramilitary Frontier Corps will be. The corps is a poorly armed and little trained force that the government hopes can be turned into a unit capable of battling the Taliban.

Because its troops are local men, U.S. and Pakistani officials argue they are better equipped to win public sympathy in the northwest. But for the same reason, some observers point out the troops could subscribe to strong anti-American sentiment in the area.

U.S. special forces recently began a program to train the Frontier Corps to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida.

A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan insisted Monday that the temporary halting of convoys through the Khyber Pass had not impacted operations.

“We continue to move supplies through Pakistan to Afghanistan,” said Lt. Cmdr. Walter Matthews. “I can’t give you the route.”

Bakhtiar Khan, a No. 2 government representative in Khyber, said troops were authorized to shoot any armed attackers who try to assault the convoys.

Akhtar Gul was among the drivers who waited for days to enter the pass. He was pleased to see the armed escorts.

“Previously we had many apprehensions about the security of our lives and the trucks,” said Gul, who added that he did not know what was in the sealed container he was transporting. “But we hope that now it will be safe.”

U.S. and NATO officials in Afghanistan have sought to play down threats to the convoys, but NATO has said it is close to striking deals with Central Asian countries that would let it transport “non-lethal” supplies from north of Afghanistan.

In April, NATO concluded a transit agreement with Russia, but it will be of practical use only when the Central Asian nations between Russia and Afghanistan come on board.

Most of the supplies headed to foreign troops in Afghanistan arrive in the port city of Karachi and are loaded onto trucks for the journey to the border town of Chaman or through the Khyber Pass.