Washington, Dec.9 (ANI): The United States has downplayed the two insurgent attacks on NATO military depots in Pakistan, describing the assaults as having an "insignificant" impact on the overall US and NATO military effort in Afghanistan.

"The overall impact on our logistical efforts to re-supply US forces, NATO forces, ISAF forces as well as Afghan forces has been small and has had an overall insignificant impact to date," the Daily Times quoted Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, as saying.

"That said, we constantly are reviewing and adjusting our security procedures based on our own assessments of the environment. We are looking at ways to mitigate the effect of these attacks," he added.

Armed militants torched nearly 100 vehicles, including jeeps and supply trucks, early Monday in an attack on a container terminal near Peshawar. That came a day after Taliban fighters set fire to 200 vehicles.

About 80 percent of the supplies for US forces in Afghanistan come through Pakistan, much of it by land through the Kyber Pass.

Whitman said the equipment destroyed was destined for the Afghan National Army. (ANI)

Islamabad, Dec.9 (ANI): With the Pakistan Government ordering a crackdown on the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militant group and its political wing, the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which are being suspected for masterminding last month's terrorist attacks on Mumbai, an order has been issued to militant volunteers to leave Pakistan and take refuge in Afghanistan.

CBS News quoted senior security officials in Pakistan and the Middle East as saying that the orders were given several days in advance of Monday's reported arrest in Pakistan of Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, a senior LeT commander, suspected by Indian officials of assisting in the planning of the Mumbai attacks.

According to information shared with CBS News on the LeT's orders, a number of the group's militant warriors were already holed up in Pakistan's tribal areas which lie along the country's border with Afghanistan -- a territory where the Pakistani military is fighting Islamic militant groups.

A senior security official from the Middle East with access to information on LeT's workings said that most of the group's militant fighters were in the tribal areas when the Mumbai attacks took place.

These militants had apparently moved out of the Pakistani portion of Kashmir between early October and mid-November, ahead of snowfall in the region, which makes it practically impossible for them to cross the mountainous snow-clad passes between the Pakistani side of Kashmir and the Indian portion of Kashmir.

"You have to know a bit about the tactics of this group before you understand what they are doing right now," said the Middle Eastern security official, who spoke to CBS News on condition of anonymity.

"I know on good authority that Lashkar-e-Taiba during the past few days has ordered its people to leave from the tribal areas for Afghanistan."

A Pakistani security official, familiar with the investigations ahead of Monday's arrest of Lakhvi, speaking to CBS News on condition of anonymity said, "Most of these militants had either left for Afghanistan or were in the process of leaving from the tribal areas."

The Middle Eastern security official said the implication of the LeT's move may be that the group will now try to retaliate against Pakistan's military forces by staging a larger number of attacks after regrouping on Afghan soil.

"The possibility of more attacks on Pakistan by LeT members cannot be discounted," he said.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Government has ordered a tightening of security at mosques and other places of worship ahead of the Eid-ul-Adha festival that is being observed today.

The tribal area has become the militants' focal point. Al Qaeda and the Taliban, through support from groups such as LeT, are waging a resistance movement against the Pakistani military on the Pakistani side of the border and against U.S. and NATO troops on the Afghan side of the border. (ANI)

Islamabad, Dec.9 (ANI): Authorities in Pakistan are refusing to confirm or deny the arrest of Lashkar commander and Mumbai terror attack mastermind Zaki ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

A senior Pakistani security official first said that Lakhvi, an operational commander for Lashkar, was among the dozen Jamaat-ud-Dawa activists arrested, but later backed away from the assertion.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he told the New York Times that about a dozen people had been arrested in the raid in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

American Embassy officials here could not verify the claim independently.

The operation on Sunday appeared to be Pakistan's first concrete response to the demands from India and the United States to take action against the militants suspected in the attacks, which have raised tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors to their highest point in years.

American intelligence and counter-terrorism officials told The New York Times that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, continues to back the group, even after 9/11, when the Pakistani government pledged to sever its ties with militant groups.

While investigators and intelligence officials say there is no hard evidence linking Pakistan's spy agency to the Mumbai attacks, they have pointed to Lashkar as the likely culprit.

Islamabad has resisted the notion that Pakistani citizens may have been involved in the Mumbai attacks, and it has so far refused to hand over 20 criminal and terrorist suspects long demanded by the Indians.

Counter-terrorism experts familiar with the behavior of the Pakistani security services said there was a need by Pakistan to be seen to be doing something to alleviate the American and Indian pressure, as well as to avert the possibility of an Indian military strike.

Still, the effectiveness of that action might be less than India or the United States would like, they said.

A senior Pakistani official said the operation was part of a gradual effort to bring the militants under control.

"Pakistan will do it at its own pace, not at gunpoint," said a senior politician in the Pakistan Peoples Party, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak.

"The street is upset. For that reason, the government could not move too harshly against Lashkar-e-Taiba," he said. (ANI)

Mumbai, Dec 9 (ANI): A fire broke out in a restaurant on the 21st floor of the Taj Hotel's new building early this morning.

According to fire officials, no casualty has been reported.

Smoke was seen rising from the hotel.

The cause of the fire is still unknown, but hotel sources said that the fire caused due to faulty wiring.

The hotel was adjacent to the wing attacked by terrorists on November 26. (ANI)