QUETTA, Pakistan, Oct 9, (RTRS): Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan set fire to nearly 30 tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops in Afghanistan on Saturday, an official said, two days after the United States apologised to Pakistan for a cross-border air raid that killed two Pakistani soldiers. Suspected Islamist militants have stepped up attacks on convoys carrying supplies for NATO forces since the Sept 30 air strike in northwestern Pakistan described by the US ambassador to Pakistan as a terrible accident. About 20 gunmen set fire to around 30 tankers parked outside at a roadside restaurant near the southwestern town of Sibi in a pre-dawn attack, the official said. The tankers were on their way to the border town of Chaman.

“The attackers first fired shots and then fired small rockets at the tankers. Twenty-eight to 29 tankers caught fire,” local government official Naeem Sherwani told Reuters. He said one of the paramilitary soldiers escorting the convoy was wounded.
The US-backed Pakistani government is battling Taleban insurgents who remain effective despite military crackdowns on their strongholds in the northwest near the Afghan border.
Two suspected suicide bombers struck at a crowded Sufi Muslim shrine in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Thursday, killing at least seven people and wounding 65.
The US apology for the Sept 30 cross-border raid had raised the hopes that Pakistan would reopen a vital supply route in the northwest for coalition forces which Islamabad shut after the NATO strike, citing security reasons.

A second supply route passing through southwestern Pakistan has remained open.
The helicopter strike was the most serious of recent cross-border incidents involving NATO-led forces fighting in Afghanistan, which have stoked tensions with Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan will immediately reopen a vital supply route for NATO forces in Afghanistan 10 days after it was shut following a cross-border air strike by NATO forces, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
Pakistan had closed the Torkham route passing through the Khyber Pass soon after the cross-border incursion killed the soldiers. Authorites cited security reasons.
“After assessing the security situation in all its aspects, the government has decided to reopen the NATO/ISAF supply from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border at Torkham with immediate effect,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Our relevant authorities are now in the process of coordinating with authorities on the other side of the border to ensure smooth resumption of the supply traffic.”
Richard Snelsire, the US embassy spokesman, said Washington welcomed the reopening of the border crossing, and called it “a positive development.”
An embassy official, speaking on background, said trucks would likely start moving into Afghanistan on Monday.