15 killed in Nato tanker fire

A bomb attack Saturday on a Nato fuel tanker headed to Afghanistan sparked a huge fire that killed 15 people who had rushed to collect petrol leaking from the bombed-out vehicle, local administration official Shafeerullah Wazir told AFP. Earlier, 11 other Nato supply vehicles, "most of them oil tankers" were destroyed at a terminal in nearby Torkham town, another administration official, Iqbal Khattak, said, but there were no casualties.
The vehicles caught fire after a remote-controlled device was detonated under one of them around midnight, Khattak said, adding that he believed the Torkham and Landi Kotal attacks were co-ordinated. Wazir said the tanker in the Landi Kotal attack caught fire after a small bomb blast and villagers rushed to collect fuel leaking from the wreckage when the blaze was put out. "Suddenly the fire erupted again and at least 15 people including five young boys who had been collecting oil in their buckets were burnt to death," he said. Four people with severe burn injuries were receiving treatment in a local hospital, he said.