U.S. to Widen Supply Routes in Afghan War
By THOM SHANKER and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
Published: December 30, 2008, N.Y. Times
WASHINGTON — The United States and NATO are planning to open and expand supply lines through Central Asia to deliver fuel, food and other goods to a military mission in Afghanistan that is expected to grow by tens of thousands of troops in the months ahead, according to American and alliance diplomats and military officials.
The plan to open new paths through Central Asia reflects an American-led effort to seek out a more reliable alternative to the route from Pakistan through the strategic Khyber Pass, which was closed by Pakistani security forces on Tuesday as they began an offensive against militants in the region.
The militants have shown that they can threaten shipments through the pass into Afghanistan, burning cargo trucks and Humvees over recent weeks. More than 80 percent of the supplies for American and allied forces in Afghanistan now flow through Pakistan.
And the demands made on supply routes are expected to increase greatly as heavy materials are moved to Afghanistan to build the structures needed for an expanded American presence.
The officials said delicate negotiations were under way not only with the Central Asian states bordering Afghanistan but also with Russia, to work out the details of new supply routes. The talks show the continued importance of American and NATO cooperation with the Kremlin, despite lingering tension over the war between Russia and Georgia in August.
Some of Afghanistan’s neighbors in the area, in particular Kyrgyzstan, already serve as staging areas for American supplies, and officials involved in the talks said these countries appeared eager to increase their role, both to help bring stability to the region and to benefit commercially from the arrangement.
Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan share Afghanistan’s northern border and have road routes into Afghanistan. Kyrgyzstan, farther to the north, allows American military cargo planes access to its airfields, in a deal that has become more important since 2005, when the government of Uzbekistan ordered the United States to leave a base there in a dispute over human rights issues.
“These countries of Central Asia recognize that this is their struggle, too, in Afghanistan,” said one State Department official, who said those border nations had responded positively to talks on “how to improve, regularize, expand and find additional routes in.”
NATO officials say the attacks in Pakistan do not yet present a strategic threat to the American supply lines. But the closing of the supply line through Pakistan on Tuesday underscored the vulnerability of the route on which American and NATO forces depend.
That route now runs more than 700 miles from the southern Pakistani port of Karachi to Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan, and then through the Khyber Pass, the ancient gateway between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Khyber and the narrow highway that winds through it were once relatively safe, guarded by tribes paid by the Pakistani government that were subject to collective punishment for crimes against travelers, no matter who committed them.
But this year militants, including forces led by an upstart lieutenant to the Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, have largely taken over the area as the Taliban have encroached on Peshawar, a frontier hub of three million people.
The militants now routinely attack convoys on the route, firing rocket-propelled grenades and Kalashnikov rifles. Many truck drivers have stopped making the trip because it is so deadly. This month, militants ransacked a half-dozen supply depots in Peshawar itself, burning 300 cargo trucks and Humvees destined for NATO troops.
With the expected arrival of 20,000 to 30,000 American troops in Afghanistan in the coming year, the growing threat to the supply route through Pakistan has left American and NATO officials looking for greater flexibility, said Gen. John Craddock, NATO’s military commander.
About 31,000 American troops are in Afghanistan, including 14,000 in a NATO-led mission that has more than 51,000 troops. The increase outlined this month by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, could nearly double the size of the American presence.
That would require taking into Afghanistan not only more war-fighting equipment, food and fuel, but also more lumber, concrete and other construction materials to build barracks and support structures. Maj. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, deputy commander of American forces in Afghanistan, said, “There’s a very huge building campaign that has already begun.”
Under plans described by the American military, a goal would be to buy significant amounts of supplies locally from the Central Asian economies.
Other supplies could be flown to Central Asia, but heavy construction equipment and fuel would be sent by rail and then loaded on trucks for the final journey into Afghanistan.
Some supplies could be sent directly overland from Europe or through Baltic ports, then transported along Russia’s well-developed rail system to Central Asia. Russia is the principal source of fuel for the alliance’s needs in Afghanistan, and the Kremlin already allows shipment of nonlethal supplies bound for Afghanistan to travel across Russian territory by ground.
In a new development, NATO and Russian representatives are discussing whether NATO may be allowed to move military equipment through Russian airspace, alliance officials said. “Talks are now under way for a NATO-wide air transit for military goods, not specified as nonlethal,” said James Appathurai, NATO’s chief spokesman.
Thom Shanker reported from Washington, and Richard A. Oppel Jr. from Islamabad, Pakistan. Pir Zubair Shah contributed reporting from Islamabad.