Gunmen attack NATO supply trucks in Pakistan

Gunmen in Pakistan set fire to 20 trucks carrying supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan on Wednesday, police said, the latest in a series of assaults on the logistical backbone of the war in Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities, angered by repeated incursions by NATO helicopters from Afghanistan, last week blocked a supply route for the troops in Afghanistan. The latest attack on fuel tankers took place on another route near the southwestern city of Quetta.

NATO incursions and the border closure have raised tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan, long-time but uneasy allies.

U.S. pressure on Islamabad to crack down on militants in its northwest tribal areas who cross the border to attack Western troops in Afghanistan is also source of friction.

An alleged al Qaeda plot to attack European targets has put Pakistan's performance against militants under scrutiny again.

A British man killed by an air strike in Pakistan had ties with the would-be Times Square bomber, a Pakistani intelligence official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

He said the Briton, Abdul Jabbar, had also been in the process of setting up a branch for the Taliban in Britain.

"He had some links to Faisal Shahzad but the nature of the ties are not clear," the official said, referring to the Pakistani-born U.S. citizen who was sentenced to life in prison in the United States this week for trying to set off a car bomb in New York's busy Times Square.

Those links are likely to fuel concerns that al Qaeda and groups linked to it, such as Pakistan's Taliban, which trained Shahzad, are becoming an increasing threat to Western nations.

Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in early September vowed to launch attacks in the United States and Europe "very soon." It had previously made similar threats but Shahzad's plot was the closest it has come to success.

The TTP claimed responsibility for most of the latest attacks on NATO trucks. Nearly 70 vehicles have been hit.

On Wednesday, 14 gunmen in two pickup trucks opened fire on the trucks and torched them, killing a driver.

The bulk of supplies for the foreign forces in Afghanistan moves through Pakistan which is itself battling a deadly homegrown Taliban insurgency.

Analysts say supply routes to Afghanistan give Pakistan leverage over the U.S.' war efforts in Afghanistan, although Pakistan often cites security concerns as reasons for closures.

Tensions could deepen if Washington demands more cooperation from Pakistan before a gradual U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has raised concerns over the country's stability, starts in July 2011.