U.S. gets other routes for Afghan supplies

A top U.S. military commander says Russia and Central Asia states have agreed to let supplies for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan pass through them. The main route across Pakistan has been trouble. Russia and neighboring Central Asian nations have agreed to let supplies pass through their territory to American soldiers in Afghanistan, lessening Washington's dependence on dangerous routes through Pakistan, a top U.S. commander said Tuesday. Securing alternative routes to landlocked Afghanistan has taken on added urgency this year as the United States prepares to double troop numbers there to 60,000 to battle a resurgent Taliban more than seven years after the U.S.-led invasion. U.S. and NATO forces get up to 75% of "nonlethal" supplies, such as food, fuel and building materials, from shipments that cross Pakistan, a volatile, nuclear-armed nation. The main road through the Khyber Pass in the northwest of the country has occasionally been closed in recent months because of rising attacks by bandits and Islamist militants. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the chief of U.S. Central Command, said the United States had struck deals with Russia and several Central Asian states close to or bordering Afghanistan during his tour of the region in the last week. Few analysts expect Washington to abandon the Pakistani routes altogether -- unless they become impossible to traverse due to security concerns -- because they are the shortest and cheapest. The goods arrive in the southern Pakistani port of Karachi. Meanwhile, the Pakistani army said Tuesday that it had killed 60 militants in the Mohmand tribal area close to the Afghan border, a lawless region considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders. Also Tuesday, police said suspected Taliban militants killed six alleged U.S. spies in a tribal region, where American missile attacks have reportedly killed several Al Qaeda leaders in recent months.