Atlantic Council

NATO forces are looking into alternative supply routes for their increasingly over-stretched forces in Afghanistan, and could turn to countries such as Ukraine and Belarus to provide them. The Guardian:

Four serious attacks on US and Nato supplies in Pakistan during the past month, including two in the past three days, have added to the sense of urgency to conclude pacts with former Soviet republics bordering Afghanistan to the north. Nato is negotiating with Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to allow supplies for Nato forces, including fuel, to cross borders into Afghanistan from the north. The deal, which officials said was close to being agreed, follows an agreement with Moscow this year allowing Nato supplies to be transported by rail or road through Russia. The deal could allow more fuel for Nato forces to be transported from refineries in Baku, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. Most of the 75m gallons of fuel estimated to be used by Nato forces annually in Afghanistan comes from refineries in Pakistan.

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Nato officials said yesterday that the organisation is negotiating with Ukraine and Belarus for a land route which, though long, would avoid Pakistan and the pirates of the Gulf of Aden. The officials yesterday played down the strategic significance of Sunday's attack in Peshawar, the Pakistani town on the main transit route through the Khyber pass. But independent analysts described it as a well-planned move, with 100 militants torching more than 100 trucks.

According to a British defense official the attacks haven't made a huge dent to supplies, mainly due to the large amount of traffic passing through the area. Additionally, the contractors NATO hires to deliver supplies to troops are local Pashtun businesses, and it is believed the Taliban could risk a backlash if they continue to target them. More than 70% of the supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan land at the port of Karachi and are taken to Peshawar, then through the Khyber pass to Kabul. More important cargos are flown in:

More urgent or valuable supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan are flown in to the Bagram air base near Kabul, and the Kandahar base, which can take large C-17 transport aircraft used by the US and Britain. Hercules aircraft, the workhorse of the RAF, can also land at the British base Camp Bastion, in Helmand province.

But even with extra land routes from the north, more attacks on the overland routes to southern Afghanistan could exacerbate Nato's existing lack of "strategic airlift", UK officials said yesterday.