PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan suspended truck shipments of U.S. military supplies through the Khyber Pass on Tuesday after launching an offensive against militants trying to cripple Washington’s war on a resurgent Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
The U.S. military said a temporary closure of the key supply line was not a problem and praised the campaign in the rugged hills of northwestern Pakistan where al-Qaeda leaders — including Osama bin Laden — are believed to be hiding.
The operation came amid tensions between Pakistan and its eastern neighbor, India, triggered by last month’s terrorist attack in Mumbai, which the Indian government and Washington have blamed on Islamic extremists based in Pakistan.
Pakistan urged India to pull back troops that it claimed had been sent near their border after Islamabad began moving troops toward the frontier. India said it had done nothing to aggravate tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Militants in the Khyber Pass have vowed to choke off supplies across Pakistan’s western border going to American and NATO troops in Afghanistan, where fighting is escalating seven years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled a Taliban regime.
Western forces in landlocked Afghanistan rely on the winding, mountainous road for delivery of up to 75 percent of fuel, food and other goods that arrive in the port city of Karachi, Pakistan. Ammunition and weapons are flown in.
With the U.S. preparing to almost double the number of its soldiers in Afghanistan next year, the Western forces were looking for alternate routes.
Last month, The Associated Press reported that NATO was close to reaching deals with Central Asian countries north of Afghanistan that would allow the alliance to truck in “nonlethal” supplies from there.
NATO has reached a similar agreement with Russia that remains in force despite tensions triggered by the fighting in the former Soviet republic of Georgia this year, alliance officials said.
On a normal day, about 300 trucks carrying military supplies travel up the Khyber Pass. Media reports have said truck companies are becoming increasingly unwilling to transport the goods because of the danger.
