Pakistan Pays Price for Trucking in Afghan War Cargo
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Hundreds of trucks and buses leave the main highway in northwest Pakistan each evening at sunset to wait out the overnight closure of a strategic tunnel. Taliban attacks there are raising the cost of supplying U.S. troops in Afghanistan and hurting the local economy.
As darkness falls, the drivers smoke, chat or doze on the dusty earth of a roadside camp 70 kilometers (43 miles) from the border. Since 2002, militants in Pakistan have killed about 120 local drivers hauling war supplies from the country’s main seaport, Karachi, to bases in Afghanistan.