Hijackers Take Convoy Bound for U.S.-Led Forces

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Dozens of masked insurgents blocked a mountain pass and hijacked at gunpoint a convoy of trucks carrying military vehicles and other supplies bound for U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, an official said Tuesday.

Attacks are common against supply trucks that use the Khyber Pass in Pakistan's northwest to ferry supplies to U.S. and NATO troops across the border, but Monday's raid was particularly brazen.

Some 60 masked gunmen blocked the route at several points and assaulted the convoy, said Fazal Mahmood, an administration official for the Khyber tribal region.

Pakistani security forces traded fire with the gunmen but were forced to retreat. The militants took the trucks along with the drivers.

Mahmood blamed Pakistani militants Taliban movement for the attack.

"We are using all resources to trace and recover the hijacked trucks, some of which were carrying vehicles for the allied forces in Afghanistan," Mahmood said.

Mahmood blamed Pakistan's Taliban movement for the attack.

"We are using all resources to trace and recover the hijacked trucks, some of which were carrying vehicles for the allied forces in Afghanistan," Mahmood said.

Helicopter gunships were dispatched to assist in the seach in the rugged region, where Pakistan's central government has little control and militants have found hideouts.

The U.S. has praised Pakistani efforts to crack down on militants in its semi-autonomous tribal belt, and Khyber is considered particularly important because of the supply route to land-locked Afghanistan.

The U.S. also has carried out missile strikes in Pakistan's northwest.

On Monday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said he expects U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to re-evaluate the need for such strikes, which generally target suspected al-Qaida and Taliban hideouts on Pakistan's side of the Afghan border.

Zardari said in an Associated Press interview that the attacks, which have surged since August, hamper the fight against the militants -- a campaign he said was succeeding nonetheless.

"I think there is definitively going to be a new look at all the issues that have been on the table of the United States, and this is one of the large issues," Zardari said.

The U.S. missile attacks have killed some militants, but many of the dead have been civilians, stoking anger among locals.

"We feel that the strikes are an intrusion on our sovereignty, which are not appreciated by the people at large, and the first aspect of this war is to win the hearts and mind of the people," Zardari said.

Pakistan insists it is taking on the militants, pointing to a military offensive in the Bajur tribal region that began in August and has killed 1,500 suspected insurgents.

Security forces killed six more suspected militants in Bajur overnight using artillery fire, government official Jamil Khan said Tuesday.