U.S. Shifts Supply Routes To Central Asia

Local residents pass beside burning NATO oil tankers following an attack by the Taliban in Nowshera, Pakistan

The U.S. military is expanding its Central Asian supply routes for the war in Afghanistan, fearing that the routes going through Pakistan could be endangered by deteriorating U.S.-Pakistani relations.

"The Washington Post" reports on July 3, citing unnamed Pentagon officials, that in 2009, the United States moved 90 percent of its military surface cargo through the Pakistani port of Karachi and then through mountain passes into Afghanistan.

Now almost 40 percent of surface cargo arrives in Afghanistan from the north, along a patchwork of Central Asian rail and road routes. In addition, the U.S. government is negotiating expanded agreements with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and other countries that would allow for delivery of additional supplies to the Afghan war zone.

There are currently up to 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, including about 99,000 from the United States.

compiled from agency reports