The US military is working around a Pakistani government border blockade by shipping small amounts of some supplies for the Afghan war through other countries, US defence officials said on Tuesday.
The supplies for US troops in Afghanistan are items that would have been sent through Pakistan if the border hadn't been closed in protest over the US bombing on November 26 that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers, according to two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
One official said selected items in very small amounts have been shifted to "other means of delivery" in the last few days. The official declined to be more specific. Other officials said there is no immediate need to alter the flow of war supplies substantially because there is no near-term prospect of shortages. The re-routed supplies, like all that go through Pakistan, are non-lethal items.
Closing the border is among a series of actions Pakistan took in response to the November 26 incident, for which the US has expressed regret but not apologised. The Pakistanis refused an invitation to participate in a US Central Command investigation of the killings, and they boycotted an international conference in Bonn, Germany, this week on sustaining financial and political support for Afghanistan.
A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Captain John Kirby, said the border closing has had "no appreciable impact" on military operations in Afghanistan and that senior American commanders believe they are well supplied for now. Kirby said the top US commander in Kabul, Marine General John Allen, is "comfortable that he's got what he needs right now." About 30 percent of the non-lethal supplies for US and coalition troops in Afghanistan normally come via two routes from Pakistan - the Torkham border crossing in the north-west Khyber tribal area and at the Chaman gateway in the south-western Baluchistan province, near the city of Quetta.
Much of what is supplied is fuel. About 40 percent of non-lethal supplies travel on a northern route that enters Afghanistan by rail through Uzbekistan, and about 30 percent are shipped by air. Pakistan has not said how long it will keep the border closed. After previous incidents, including an attack a year ago by a US helicopter that killed two Pakistani soldiers posted on the border, the crossings were closed for 10 days to two weeks. US officials believe the closure will last longer this time.
Aware of its vulnerability to unpredictable Pakistani border closings, the US military in recent years has developed alternative supply routes. In particular it has expanded the capacity of the northern route since 2009. With a troop drawdown now under way in Afghanistan, supply requirements are expected to fall, thus also reducing the need to send fuel and other materials by land across Pakistan.
Kirby described US-Pakistani military relations as being in "a very tough spot." Noting that Pakistan on Tuesday recalled some troops from border posts meant to co-ordinate activity with international forces in Afghanistan, Kirby said the US and its Nato partners hope they will return soon.
"The whole reason those centers exist is to help try to prevent incidents like what happened" November 26 on the border, he said. "The risks (of miscommunication and mistaken attacks) only increase when you don't have those co-ordination centers fully manned and staffed." The closing of the border and other Pakistani reactions to the border incident have again raised questions in Congress about the future of US-Pakistani relations.
Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham said on Monday that Washington should reconsider the relationship. They called the Pakistani soldier deaths a "terrible tragedy" but said Islamabad's response was "deeply troubling" and has added to the deterioration of the relationship.
"In particular, all options regarding US security and economic assistance to Pakistan must be on the table, including substantial reductions and stricter standards for performance," they said in a joint statement. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, told reporters on Tuesday that legislation putting new restrictions on aid to Pakistan would have a "good chance" of passing Congress.
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