Taliban attacks Nato by choking supplies

Gulab Khan is constantly reminded of the danger of his job by the two round stickers he has used to cover bullet holes in the windscreen of the cab of his lorry, one of the thousands of trucks carrying diesel and jet fuel to Nato bases across Afghanistan.

"I believe it was the holy Koran, which I keep with me in the truck, that saved me from the bullets," says Mr Khan as he recalls being attacked by insurgents last year on the dangerous run between Kabul and Kandahar airfield, a huge coalition military base in Afghanistan's insurgent-ridden southern desert.

Despite the extra $2,500 (€1,648, £1,297) to be made on each load supplying the needs of Nato's war machine in the south, he now restricts himself to less lucrative but far safer northern routes, delivering jet fuel in his rusty old Mercedes truck from Pakistan to Bagram airfield.

It is just as well for him, as this summer has seen an escalation in Taliban assaults on Nato supply lines with insurgents stepping up attacks on fuel -convoys and the country's roads.

Country managers at western security companies that hire out teams of armed Afghans and foreigners to protect convoys operating in the south say the situation has deteriorated sharply.

"In the summer months, I would expect to be attacked once or twice a week," said one manager, unwilling to speak on the record.

"Last week, we were caught up in an attack on a convoy of fuel trucks on a road we are working on. It looked like a war zone, with five diesel tanks burst open by [rocket propelled grenades] and burning diesel flooding out over the road."

The security companies are circumspect about how many tankers they lose, but he said that "multiple dozens" have been lost in the south each month during the summer.

In June, fighters set upon a convoy of more than 50 tankers, setting fire to them about 65km south of Kabul.

According to British officials in Lashkar Gar, the capital of Helmand province, the 10 largest fuel transport groups now have to spend a combined $2m a month on protecting the 5,000 trucks they operate. Kabul is now encouraging the companies to help fund its efforts to reclaim control over the road network.

The eastern provinces of Zabul and Ghazni have been particularly badly hit by attacks on bridges, with local officials saying they have lost four bridges and around 30 culverts in the past three months.

Matthew Leeming, a Kabul-based fuel trader, said it had become increasingly difficult to get convoys of essential goods through to more distant bases.

"The Taliban's new tactics of blowing bridges between Kabul and Kandahar, forcing convoys to slow down and become softer targets, is causing severe problems to companies trying to supply Kandahar from Kabul," he said.

Billions of international aid dollars have been spent on building a national road network, with the US Agency for International Development providing $260m for most of the Kabul-Kandahar link and Japan adding $34m for the rest.

But the Afghan army and police have been unable to reclaim control of the roads from insurgents and criminal gangs who illegally tax traders who pass through their patches.

Passengers on civilian buses are routinely searched and killed if any evidence suggesting they work for the government or foreigners is found. Humanitarian convoys are not immune either. Last year the World Food Programme was attacked 30 times and sustained $750,000 of damage.

Nato spokespeople say that the attacks on the alliance's supply lines have not affected its operations, but this year it sought to open alternative routes from -central Asia, rather than rely on equipment coming in through Pakistan.

Forty fuel trucks were destroyed in March near the crossing between the two countries.

However, a western security executive told the FT that for a period last summer some military bases in the south were almost running on empty, "stopping all non-essential movement and offensive operations because of fuel shortages".

One security contractor even claimed to have donated some spare mortars to British troops in the south whose supply lines had been "slightly pinched".

At Camp Bastion, the main British military base in Helmand province, logisticians like to have 30 days' fuel reserves but last month supplies fell to seven days.

On July 13, Dutch commanders in Tirin Kot, capital of Uruzgan province, were so anxious for the delivery of fuel supplies that had been delayed in Kandahar that they dispatched their own protection for a convoy of 13 trucks.

Despite the deployment of coalition air and ground forces, the convoy came under attack and two tankers were destroyed.