Pakistan hijackers seize convoy for US-led forces

Dozens of masked gunmen blocked a mountain pass and hijacked 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. The U.S. has carried out missile strikes in Pakistan's northwest, and 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. "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. Zardari was headed Tuesday to the United States for a U.N. conference on interfaith harmony. He was expected to meet U.S. officials and raise the issue of the missiles. 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.