Gunmen have attacked a Nato convoy¹ near the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, killing² at least seven people and setting several vehicles on fire.

一支北约车队在巴基斯坦首都伊斯兰堡附近遭遇歹徒袭击，造成至少7人死亡、数辆汽车着火。

The overnight assault took place just 10km (six miles) outside the city - the closest such attack to the capital so far.

A dozen militants³（激进分子） opened fire, torching 20 parked supply trucks and destroying millions of dollars of army equipment.

The Nato trucks were carrying supplies to alliance（联盟） 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 depot⁴（仓库，停车场） .

"The attackers walked into the depot and started indiscriminate（任意的，不分皂白的） firing," he told the Reuters news agency.

Kalim Iman, inspector⁵ 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 lucrative⁶（赚钱的，合算的） business for the drivers, but it angers Pakistanis upset at Western military attacks in Afghanistan and the broader region, the BBC's Bill Hayton says.

The alliance has been searching out alternate routes via Russia and central Asia, and this attack will spur（激励，鞭策） their efforts to get them moving, our correspondent adds.