Fuel Trucks for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan Destroyed

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Twenty-five trucks carrying fuel to American-led forces in Afghanistan were destroyed Sunday in a possible bombing on the Pakistani border, local government officials said.

Dozens of people were injured, they said.

Muhammad Sadiq Khan, a local government official, said that the explosions occurred late Sunday on the Pakistani side of border near the customs checkpoint at Torkham. At least 50 people were injured, eight of them seriously, officials said.

Fida Muhammad, the commander of a paramilitary force that helps provide security at the border crossing, said authorities suspected that the blasts were caused by bombs, but he said that an investigation was under way.

Fuel tankers headed for American and NATO bases in Afghanistan have been repeatedly singled out by militants close to the Pakistani border.

Meanwhile, Afghan and NATO forces killed more than 40 insurgents in an air and ground battle on Saturday in southern Afghanistan, a security official announced Sunday.

Troops seized dozens of weapons — including rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns — after Saturday’s battle in Dihrawud, a district in Oruzgan Province, the Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement. It said many militants were killed, including a commander, but provided no figures.

An official at the ministry, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details about the battle, put the number of dead at more than 40.

Also on Saturday, American-led coalition troops hit a roadside bomb in Kandahar Province as they were conducting a security patrol with Afghan soldiers, the coalition said in a statement released Sunday. Two soldiers died, it said, without releasing their nationalities.