U.S. apologizes to Pakistan for NATO attack that led to shutdown of key border crossing into Afghanistan

The Pakistani government’s decision to shut down a border crossing used by trucks and tankers ferrying fuel and supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan has created a massive logjam that Islamic militants have exploited with devastating ferocity.

Since Islamabad ordered the closure of the Torkham border crossing in retaliation for a missile strike that killed two Pakistani soldiers, dozens of fuel tankers have been set ablaze across the country. In some of the attacks, militants rode up on motorcycles to clusters of poorly guarded tankers and firebombed the vehicles, filling the sky with massive plumes of fire and black smoke.

In the last seven days, militants have carried out seven attacks on tankers and trucks bearing supplies for North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces, destroying or damaging more than 90 vehicles and killing at least six people.

U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson apologized to Pakistan on Wednesday for the Sept. 30 NATO helicopter incursion that led to the soldiers’ deaths, prompting analysts to predict the Islamabad government may soon reopen the crossing.

NATO acknowledged that its helicopters strayed into Pakistani airspace and fired on a border post, apparently after mistaking warning shots for hostile fire from insurgents.

“We extend our deepest apology to Pakistan and the families of the Frontier Scouts who were killed and injured,” Patterson said in a statement. “Pakistan’s brave security forces are our allies in a war that threatens both Pakistan and the U.S.”

The U.S. commander of Western troops in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, expressed regret and pledged to work with the Pakistani military and government “to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

Pakistani security analyst Hasan Askari Rizvi said the apology and the findings of a joint Pakistani-NATO investigation would probably be enough to ease the strain on U.S.-Pakistani relations.

Truckers say the border closure has magnified the vulnerability they routinely face moving through a country harshly critical of Washington’s policies in Afghanistan. Even before the border closure, they dreaded nights when fatigue forced them to pull into a truck stop and park alongside other tankers bound for Afghanistan.

Now because of the bottleneck, they say that they feel like easy prey in roadside parking lots where two or three unarmed security guards stand between them and militants armed with assault rifles and Molotov cocktails.

“There’s no security here at all,” said trucker Faisal Khan, sitting in a tea room just yards away from the charred husks of oil tankers firebombed Monday in Islamabad. “I’m thinking of getting out of this business, and most of the other truck owners I know feel the same way.” One of the two tankers he owns was destroyed in the attack.

Hundreds of trucks carrying fuel and supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan now sit idle at the border and at truck stops across Pakistan. In the latest attacks, gunmen set fire to 26 fuel tankers near the northwestern city of Nowshera and 25 others outside the southern city of Quetta on Wednesday. One driver was killed in Quetta.

Roughly 80% of NATO’s noncombat supplies bound for Afghanistan move by truck from the Pakistani port of Karachi to either the northwestern border crossing at Torkham or the southern crossing at Chaman. The Chaman crossing, located in Baluchistan province, has remained open.

In recent years, U.S and NATO forces have established routes through former Soviet republics in Central Asia as alternate supply lines, but those are longer.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on television Wednesday that Pakistan is responsible for ensuring the security of Afghanistan-bound trucks. However, truckers said the government has never provided any security, leaving it up to fleet owners and suppliers to ensure the safety of drivers and vehicles.

On the road, NATO tankers and supply trucks aren’t as vulnerable because they appear like any other Pakistani truck. However, militants are usually able to single out which trucks are supplying Western forces in Afghanistan because the four- to seven-day cross-country journey necessitates breaks at truck stops and roadside hotels.

The Sept. 30 border incident occurred on the heels of a series of strikes by unmanned CIA drones targeting militant leaders holed up in Pakistan’s tribal areas and a separate helicopter pursuit the previous day in the volatile frontier region.

“The team concluded two coalition helicopters passed into Pakistan airspace several times,” NATO’s statement said. “Subsequently the helicopters fired on a building later identified as a Pakistan border outpost, in response to shots fired from the post.”

The investigators concluded that it was “most probable” that soldiers on duty at the post were trying to warn the helicopter crews of their presence.

alex.rodriguez@latimes

Times staff writer Laura King in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.