U.S. Seeks New Supply Routes Into Afghanistan

Traffic moves slowly through Torkham, an Afghan town on the Pakistani border that is a key part of the NATO supply route. A bold Taliban raid last week on the Pakistani side of the Khyber Pass caused officials to close the border at Torkham. It reopened Monday. (By Candace Rondeaux -- The Washington Post)
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The new contractor will also be required to have intrusion detection devices and a real-time satellite tracking and tracing system that reports the location of each vehicle every 30 minutes.

Russia agreed this year to allow NATO to send material by rail. The coalition in Afghanistan is working to create an intercontinental rail system that would carry nonlethal equipment and materials for both economic assistance and military programs that would go through Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It would not extend into Afghanistan, however.

Separately, the Pentagon's Transportation Command is seeking contractors who could handle what it projects as about 50,000 rail containers a year traveling over a new Europe-Caucasus route or, separately, one through Central Asia.

Meanwhile, heavy security along the Pakistan-to-Afghanistan route has slowed NATO supply traffic to a trickle at Torkham, according to Afghan customs officials and drivers here. To the east, more than 1,000 trucks waited at a near-standstill on the Pakistani side of the pass on Tuesday, engines idling in an hours-long purgatory of dust and unmet deadlines. To the west, a thin stream of tractor-trailers lurched toward the Afghan customs office, churning slowly through an unceasing throng of merchants, day laborers and refugees.

Security restrictions forced customs officials to slow the flow of traffic to 25 trucks every few hours. Before the Taliban raid and border closure last week, an average of 600 to 800 tractor-trailers moved through Torkham a day, according to Afghan customs officials. Customs officials said they hoped at best to see 200 trucks pass through on Tuesday.

Saif ur-Rehman, a NATO supply truck driver, said he was stranded for nearly five days while he waited last week for the crossing at Torkham to reopen. The delay cost him the Pakistani equivalent of about $350 -- no small sum for a man who earns on average about $1,200 a month. Still, ur-Rehman, 45, said he was pleased with the security provided by the Pakistani government. "We are glad they are finally giving us security. Before, they weren't escorting the trucks, but now we're not as scared as we were," ur-Rehman said.

Yet many expect raids on the convoys to continue. Rahmanullah, 28, said the attacks have become so commonplace in recent months and so costly for NATO suppliers that Taliban raiders have begun issuing receipts to drivers when they strike.

"The Taliban give us letters to give to the Americans that say that the Taliban has taken the truck, because otherwise no one would believe us and they would think we destroyed it ourselves," Rahmanullah said. "No one would question a letter like this from the Taliban."

Pincus reported from Washington. Special correspondents Javed Hamdard in Afghanistan and Haq Nawaz Khan in Pakistan contributed to this report.