Gunmen Kill Seven in Attack on Nato Convoy in Pakistan Gunmen have attacked a Nato convoy near the Pakistani capital, Islamabad,

Gunmen have attacked a Nato convoy near the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, killing at least seven people and setting several vehicles on fire.

The overnight assault took place just 10km (six miles) outside the city - the closest to the capital that militants have struck so far. A dozen militants opened fire, torching 20 parked supply trucks and destroying millions of dollars of army equipment.

The Nato trucks were carrying supplies to alliance troops in Afghanistan.

"The attack took place around 2335 local time (1835 GMT) and we are still trying to find out how this attack has happened," said Shah Nawaz, the head of the police station in Tarnol, where the trucks were parked at a roadside depot.

"The attackers walked into the depot and started indiscriminate firing," he told the Reuters news agency.

Kalim Iman, inspector general of Islamabad police, said that police were searching for the suspected militants, who escaped in two cars and on motorbikes.

In addition to those killed, police said at least four others were injured. The casualties were thought to be the drivers of the trucks and other local people.

Some three-quarters of the supplies needed by the 130,000 US-led international troops in Afghanistan are transported by land from the Pakistan port of Karachi.

It is a lucrative business for the drivers, but it angers Pakistanis upset at Western military attacks in Afghanistan and the broader region, according to BBC' News.

The alliance has been searching out alternate routes via Russia and central Asia, and this attack will spur their efforts to get them moving.