4 Jul 2012

Pakistan to reopen Afghanistan supply route

12:13 pm on 4 July 2012

Pakistan is to reopen supply routes to NATO-led forces in Afghanistan after the United States formally apologized for killing 24 Pakistani soldiers last year.

An agreement was announced simultaneously in Washington and Islamabad, ending weeks of negotiations between the two sides.

The routes are increasingly important as Nato prepares to withdraw all combat troops from Afghanistan in 2014, the BBC reports

The dispute began in November last year Pakistani troops were killed in US air strikes on two posts during an operation to root out militants along the Afghan border.

At the time, Afghan officials said that NATO forces had been retaliating for gunfire from the Pakistani side of the volatile border, but Pakistan rejected that claim.