peshawar: Suspected Taliban militants yesterday attacked and destroyed a tanker supplying fuel to Nato troops in neighbouring Afghanistan, police said.

A group of 10 armed men ambushed the tanker en route to Afghanistan on the ring road outside the northwestern city of Peshawar and opened fire with Kalashnikovs, wounding both the driver and his assistant.

“They ordered the driver and the assistant to get down and fired rockets at the tanker, which triggered a massive fire,” senior police official Mohammad Alam Shinwari said.

He said the militants were travelling in three cars.

Another senior police official, Mohammad Karim Khan, confirmed the incident and said militants fled after the attack.

The attack came a day after Pakistani ground troops and attack helicopters launched a new operation against militants in Khyber, the tribal region that straddles the main route for Nato supplies heading into Afghanistan.

Militants carry out frequent attacks on supplies for US and Nato-led forces fighting against Taliban insurgents across the border.

US officials say northwest Pakistan has become a safe haven for Al Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan and have regrouped to launch attacks on foreign troops across the border. In southwest Pakistan, gunmen torched four vehicles carrying fuel to Nato forces in Afghanistan, police said on Tuesday.