KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A truck drivers' strike that has choked the flow of military supplies to Afghanistan won't affect Canadian troops stationed in the landlocked country, insists the commander of Canada's overseas forces.
Lt.-Gen. Michel Gauthier said the Canadian military does not truck in vital supplies via the treacherous stretch through the Khyber Pass that links Pakistan with Afghanistan.
"We have flexible ways of bringing our supplies in, and there is nothing operational, no operational necessities that flow through Pakistan. So it's not a great concern to us," Gauthier said Tuesday at Kandahar Air Field.
Many supplies bound for foreign troops in Afghanistan arrive at the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi, where they are loaded onto trucks for the journey through the Khyber Pass -- the shortest and most economical route into Afghanistan.
The convoys carry food, fuel and other goods, including military vehicles and munitions.
But hijackings and attacks on convoys by Taliban and their allied militias have become more frequent in recent months.
The militants have targeted hundreds of NATO and US-led coalition vehicles along the 56-kilometre highway between the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar and the Khyber Pass.
Fearful Pakistani truck drivers are now refusing to transport critical cargo along that route. They want the security improved before they resume shipments.
Gauthier acknowledged the strike will affect other coalition forces that rely on supplies from Pakistan to battle Taliban insurgents.
"In a greater NATO sense, with the tens of thousands of troops that are here, of course it's a concern," he said.
"And that means working with Pakistan to do everything we can to protect those lines of communication, and at the same time look at alternatives to that, which is what I think NATO will be doing. ...
"I do know that there's concern on both sides of the border and that we are working with Pakistan officials to minimize that disruption."
He joked that supplies for the Tim Hortons coffee shop at Kandahar Air Field are the only critical cargo the Canadian Forces brings in from Pakistan.
This summer, however, fuel pumps ran low at Kandahar Air Field after the Taliban choked off important supply routes. Commercial aircraft were not allowed to buy fuel at the airfield, and some facilities on the base were shut down to conserve power at a time of year when the fighting is most heavy.
Gauthier played down the summer fuel shortage as something "that happens from time to time."
"I think there's been once in the last three years . . . where it was close to a critical -- it never actually became a critical situation," he said.
"But, so far, it has not been a major issue. I wouldn't see . . . the insurgents being able to disrupt the line of communication permanently."
