NATO has denied reports that oil tankers destroyed in a Taliban attack in northern Afghanistan on Wednesday was carrying fuel to the NATO-led coalition forces in the war-torn country.
A press release from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Thursday said none of the 24 civilian fuel trucks destroyed in a parking area in Khuram wa Sar Bagh district, Samangan province, had been contracted by ISAF.
The trucks were destroyed in a fire that was ignited when one of the trucks was intentionally blown up. The incident is currently under investigation by provincial officials from the Afghan National Police.
Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, first of its kind in northern Afghanistan. The trucks, coming from Uzbekistan, were targeted in the same province where noted Afghan politician Ahmad Khan Samangani was killed by a suicide-bomber on Saturday while attending his daughter's wedding, reports said.
After Pakistan closed the supply routes in November last year in response to the deaths of two dozen Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border air raid by NATO troops, the Coalition has been heavily relying on overland supplies from Central Asia.
Pakistan reopened NATO ground supply routes on its border with Afghanistan early this month, marking reparation of ruptured U.S.-Pak relations.
Pentagon says that although the Pakistani ground supply routes are cheaper, coalition forces will continue to use the Northern Distribution Network as well, which it says "is still a viable, vital method through which logistics flow in and out of Afghanistan."
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.