New Attack on Oil Pipeline in Iraq
Jun 16, 8:52 AM (ET)
By TODD PITTMAN
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Saboteurs blasted a key southern pipeline for the second
time in as many days Wednesday, shutting down Iraq's oil exports, and gunmen
killed a security chief for the state-run Northern Oil Co.
The latest attacks at Iraq's oil sector have slowed the process of reviving its
economy after decades of war, international sanctions and Saddam Hussein's
tyranny. Insurgents also are targeting the country's infrastructure apparently
to undermine confidence in the new government, which takes power from the
U.S.-led coalition June 30.
Elsewhere, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered members of his militia
to leave the holy cities of Najaf and Kufa unless they live there, fulfilling a
key aspect of an agreement meant to end fighting between his forces and U.S.
troops.
Wednesday's attack north of the town of Faw crippled two already damaged
pipelines, forcing authorities to stop the flow of crude oil southward to the
Basra oil terminal on the Gulf, said Southern Oil Co. spokesman Samir Jassim.
Exports were halted last month through the other export avenue - the northern
pipeline from Kirkuk to Ceyhan, Turkey - after a May 25 bombing, Turkish
officials said on condition of anonymity.
Two explosions on the southern pipeline occurred in the same area as a blast
Tuesday. It could take up to a week to repair, Jassim said.
In another assault on the country's petroleum industry, Northern Oil Co.
security chief Ghazi Talabani was killed in an ambush while going to work in
the city of Kirkuk, said Gen. Anwar Amin of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps.
Three gunmen attacked Talabani's car after his bodyguard briefly left the
vehicle in a crowded market. The bodyguard was wounded.
Talabani, the third Iraqi official to be killed since Saturday. was the cousin
of the head of one of the two main Kurdish political parties, the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan.
Kirkuk sits on some of the world's largest oil reserves. The biggest northern
oil field contains an estimated 7 billion barrels of recoverable crude, putting
it in the same league as Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, during its heyday in the 1970s.
Saboteurs also blasted a northern oil pipeline about midnight Tuesday near the
town of Dibis, some 20 miles west of Kirkuk, said Northern Oil official Mustafa
Awad. The Dibis attack did not disrupt exports and the fire was extinguished,
Iraqi oil officials said Wednesday.
Iraq's southern pipeline has been its main export artery ever since the
U.S.-led invasion. Repeated sabotage attacks have forced Iraqis to curtail oil
shipments in the north, and most of Iraq's crude exports now come from the
south.
OPEC president Purnomo Yusgiantoro said Wednesday he would ask major oil
producing countries who don't belong to the cartel - such as Mexico, Oman,
Angola and Russia - to boost output to compensate for the loss of Iraqi
exports. However, the director of Russia's Federal Energy Agency rejected the
call, saying Russia did not have enough spare capacity, the Interfax news
agency reported.
Although Iraq's reserves are huge, it is not a major player in global energy
markets and a short-term interruption won't have a major effect. That could
change if insurgents continue to interrupt Iraq's exports.
Pipeline sabotage, however, "has a large psychological effect on the markets
and leads to higher prices," independent economist Jassem al-Saadoun told The
Associated Press.
"The issue here is not that of supply and demand, but a political one that has
to do with instability in the area, including what is happening in Saudi
Arabia," he said, referring to the deadly attacks on foreign workers in the
kingdom.
In a new sign of cooperation with the interim Iraqi government, al-Sadr told
fighters who had come to the holy cities from other parts of Iraq to help fight
the Americans to return home "to carry on their duties as God wants," a
statement from his office said.
The firebrand preacher said last week he would work with the interim government
if it takes steps to end the U.S. military presence.
Al-Sadr launched an uprising after occupation authorities closed his newspaper,
arrested a key aide and announced a warrant for his arrest in the 2003 murder
of a moderate cleric. Outraged loyalists rallied to his defense.
Although al-Sadr's forces still fight U.S. troops periodically in Baghdad's
Sadr City district, the Americans forced the militia to abandon another Shiite
city, Karbala, and to accept a truce this month in Najaf and Kufa. The truce
has generally held.
(AP) Iraq's Interim President Ghazi al-Yawer addresses a news conference in
Baghdad, Iraq Tuesday June...
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Meanwhile, an Iraqi police officer was killed and five Iraqi civilians were
wounded Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded near U.S. convoy in Ramadi.
U.S. Marines arrested seven Iraqis, including six members of the Iraqi Civil
Defense Force, for alleged involvement in the attack, military officials said.
There were no U.S. causalities.
Civil defense troops are to assume greater responsibility for security after
the formal end of the occupation, but concerns have risen in recent days about
their lack of training and equipment.
Ahead of the power transfer, coalition officials said they would hand over the
civilian part of Baghdad International Airport to Iraqi authorities about July
1. The military also plans to turn over the military side of the airport in
August, a senior coalition official said on condition of anonymity.
Return of the airport was a key demand of the interim government, which is
eager to take control of the country's borders when sovereignty is transferred.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz arrived Wednesday in Baghdad for talks
on the sovereignty transfer, Al-Jazeera television reported.
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