Getting soldiers and war matériel into Afghanistan is difficult. Very difficult. The approach from Pakistan is tortuous, via the Khyber Pass, where in ages past, Pashtun tribesmen used to tax caravans carrying silk and spices westward. Today the caravans carry armoured vehicles and fuel for the US and NATO war in Afghanistan - and they are still being attacked and taxed.

The bulk of the fuel needed by US and NATO forces in Afghanistan is carried by private trucking contractors from Pakistan. Following a NATO helicopter bombing inside Pakistani territory which outraged Pakistani citizens and government alike, a number of fuel convoys were torched. The convoys are rolling again, but the tactic of targeting fuel supplies has been taken up by the Taliban in Afghanistan itself.

A report from NEWS24:

Kabul - Six heavily armoured vehicles were destroyed on Monday when rocket fire blew up a fuel tank at a Nato base in eastern Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. "The forward operating base in Kunar province in the district of Asadabad received small arms fire and a round from a rocket-propelled grenade," an ISAF spokesperson said. "The RPG struck a fuel bladder. The fire is under control at this time. The fire did destroy six MRAPs (mine-resistant armoured protected vehicles) and an ambulance." No injuries or fatalities were reported, he added. Taliban spokesperson Zabillulah Mujahid said the group was responsible and claimed that a helicopter and an ammunitions dump were also destroyed. "Heavy casualties were also inflicted on foreign soldiers in the base," he added..

The US and NATO forces can also be supplied with fuel flown to the rented US base in Kazakhstan, but this route is expensive and it is hard to imagine that fuel-guzzling armoured trucks and aircraft can be supplied by this means for long.

Other possible land routes into Afghanistan require the active cooperation of the SCO states, including Russia and China.

There is one other possible supplier of fuel - Iran. It would give good measure of the desperate straits the US and NATO are in if they were to ask Iran, a nation against which they have placed sanctions prohibiting the import of fuel, to supply them - but that has happened:

TEHRAN (FNA)- Washington has asked Tehran to supply gasoline to its forces deployed in the region, an Iranian official announced on Monday, reminding that the US has made the demand while it has recently passed a legislation to boycott global fuel supplies to Iran.
"A country which was the main actor behind fuel sanctions against Iran has now stretched its needy hand to Iran to purchase gasoline for its military forces in the region," Iran's Deputy Welfare and Social Security Minister Ali Yousefpour said. more from FARS

BIGGER THAN THE US; BIGGER THAN THE EU

The emerging Eurasian bloc headed by China and Russia will be the world's major economic grouping - and soon! The SCO already includes China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan as full members, and observer states India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan may be promoted to full membership at the next meeting in Russia. In terms of population, resources and manufacturing capacity, the SCO is now the world's largest economic entity. Big Island Gazette has been following the development of the SCO for some time. See our reports here.