Taliban admits torching Nato tankers

The Taliban says its militants carried out an arson attack on Nato tankers in Pakistan as revenge for a scaled-up US drone strike campaign in the country's northwest.

The Taliban has said its militants carried out an arson attack on Nato tankers in Pakistan as revenge for a scaled-up US drone strike campaign in the country's northwest.

"We claim responsibility for attacking and torching Nato tankers in Quetta today," a Tehreek-e-Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq said, saying the attack on tankers stationed in the southwestern city was carried out by local militants.

"We will further intensify attacks with the intensification of US drone strikes on us," he said.

One person was killed when unknown gunmen attacked a Quetta terminal where up to 40 tankers were parked, and opened fire, setting at least 10 Nato oil tankers ablaze, according to senior police officials. Taliban militants have claimed two other raids this week in which nearly 60 trucks were torched and three people died. The US has massively increased its drone campaign in Pakistan's lawless northwest tribal region on the Afghan border, where an alleged terror plot to attack European targets is believed to have been hatched.

Pakistani authorities have reported 24 attacks since September 3 which have killed more than 140 people. The main land route for Nato supplies crossing from Pakistan to Afghanistan was closed for a seventh consecutive day, after a cross-border Nato helicopter attack that officials blamed for the deaths of three Pakistani soldiers.

The alliance has said it shot back in self-defence. A Frontier Corps official said the border force was waiting for a joint statement by the Pakistani government and Nato's International Security Assistance Force following their joint investigation into the incident, before reopening the crossing.

A Nato chief, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has urged Pakistan to reopen the vital route "as soon as possible".

The Taliban vowed further attacks: "We have ordered (local militants) to kill all security force personnel and attack Nato containers that they come across," said Tariq. "Pakistan's government has made our job easy by stopping Nato tankers and supplies."

Pakistan's US envoy said today that the increase in drone strikes was linked to reports this week of an alleged terror plot targeting Europe.