Gunmen in south western Pakistan torched eight Nato oil tankers and shot dead a driver today, police said, in the latest strike against supply convoys heading for Afghanistan since Pakistan shut a key border crossing to international forces last week.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility today for a pre-dawn attack on tankers carrying fuel to Afghanistan for US and other Nato forces.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility today for a pre-dawn attack on tankers carrying fuel to Afghanistan for US and other Nato forces, vowing to continue raiding supply lines in Pakistan until they are shut down completely.

Suspected militants attacked and set on fire at least 20 oil tankers in Pakistan that were on their way to Nato and US troops in Afghanistan.

At least 27 tankers carrying fuel for Nato troops in Afghanistan were attacked in southern Pakistan.

PAKISTANI authorities blocked a vital supply route for NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan yesterday after the killing of three soldiers in two NATO cross-border incursions, officials said.

Pakistan blocked a vital supply route for Nato Afghanistan forces today in retaliation for a cross-border helicopter strike by the coalition that killed three frontier troops.

At least 20 civilians, two British soldiers and an American serviceman have died in bomb attacks in Afghanistan.

Nato-led troops and Afghan forces detained a prominent Taliban commander during a raid on a compound in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said today.

A senior British diplomat today said Pakistan was not a “source of terrorism,” and praised the country’s role in the international struggle against terror.

A French man who fought with al-Qaida has given clues to the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden whilst under armed guard in a Pakistani hospital.

Afghanistan’s Taliban Government has reportedly lost control of the eastern city of Jalalabad and the southern city of Kandahar after local tribesmen rose up against the crumbling regime.

The Taliban stronghold of Jalalabad was reported to have fallen today to a warlord who has refused to ally himself to either side in the war for Afghanistan.

Pakistani soldiers have fought a two-hour gunbattle with about 30 Taliban fighters who tried to cross the Afghan border to escape US attacks last night.