Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Bombs hit southern Iraq oil pipeline
Three bombs hit an oil pipeline that transports crude from Iraq’s southern oilfields to storage tanks around the oil hub of Basra on Tuesday, an oil police source said.
The impact on oil production or exports was not immediately clear, but firefighters were working to put out the blaze caused by the blast, the source who was at the explosion site said.
“The explosions happened in succession and caused an enormous fire,” he said.
“We cannot go near the explosion site because the fire is still raging ... we fear the fire might extend to other nearby oil pipelines.”
The source said the oil police were checking other pipelines for more bombs.
An oil official in Basra confirmed the blast was caused by a bomb attack. The pipeline was carrying crude to the Zubair 1 storage facility near Basra, the two sources said.
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In early June, militants blew up a storage tank at the Zubair 1 storage facility, despite tight security.
Basra, which handles the bulk of Iraq’s oil exports, has generally seen fewer attacks this year than other cities in the country following an overall decline in levels of violence since the peak of sectarian conflict in Iraq in 2006-07.
In October, two bombs hit pipeline networks transporting crude from Iraq’s Rumaila oilfield, the country’s biggest, cutting output from the field to 530,000 barrels per day from about 1.24 million bpd.
Iraq’s oil police have stepped up patrols to protect installations against a possible surge in al Qaeda attacks as U.S. troops withdraw before Dec. 31, the head of the force said on Tuesday.
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Friday, December 2, 2011Iraq says PM possible target in Green Zone bomb
Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said on Friday a rare attack inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone this week was carried out by a suicide bomber in a car and may have targeted the country's prime minister.
Reports a suicide bomber was able to penetrate the Green Zone, which houses the U.S. and other embassies as well as parliament and some ministries, raised questions about security just as the remaining American troops leave Iraq.
The attack took place a day before a visit by Vice President Joe Biden to Iraq's capital.
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Baghdad security operations official, Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, said intelligence pointed to an attempt to target Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki or some other top political leader, but he said the investigation was still ongoing.
It was not clear if anybody other than the attacker was killed in Monday night's blast, which officials initially said was a mortar round. Rockets and mortar rounds occasionally land on U.S. bases and inside the Green Zone.
Moussawi said the bomber was driving a black, four-wheel drive vehicle carrying 20 kg (44 lb) of locally manufactured explosives, which had been placed close to the tank.
"Intelligence shows the suicide bomber aimed to enter the building of the parliament and to stay in one of the parking lots until the prime minister ... arrived at the parliament," he said.
He showed a video of a black vehicle approaching a checkpoint outside the parliament building, then backing off, before an explosion outside the building. But he showed little evidence as to how the bomb was to have targeted Maliki.
Violence in Iraq is down sharply since the peak of sectarian slaughter here in 2006-2007, but Sunni Islamists tied to al Qaeda and rival Shi'ite militias, some backed by Iran, still carry out almost daily bombings, attacks and assassinations.
The remaining 12,000 U.S. troops are due to leave in a few weeks, nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and allowed the country's Shi'ite majority to ascend in power.
Many Iraqis worry that without the buffer of a U.S. presence, sectarian tensions could rise again. The admission that a suicide bomber entered the Green Zone as the U.S. hands over security may fuel tensions among the country's fragile power-sharing coalition of Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish political blocs.
Supporters of Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni, have already said he could have been the target of an attempted assassination. He is a political rival of Maliki, a Shi'ite leader.
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28/11/2011 BREAKING NEWS: Bomb blast rocks Baghdad
BAGHDAD, A suicide car bomber has killed and injured almost 30 people in northern Baghdad according to an unnamed police source.
The Iraqi health ministry has set the casualty figures at seven killed and 21 injured. The bomber blew up his explosives laden car at the main entrance to the city's Al-Taji jail.
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The source told AKnews the terrorist's intention was to break into the prison yard with the vehicle. When this fell through he detonated the charges in the car a the gate. Most of the casualties were members of the security forces operating out of the prison.
Ambulances arrived at the scene as police cordoned off the area. On Thursday a Basra shopping area saw calculated carnage as a series of bombs were set off, timed to inflict the most damage and death. As people rushed to the scene of the first blast the second bomb went off. When security forces arrived the third went off.
Al-Taji prison was the scene of a break out in the spring of this year. On May 20 five members of the Mahdi Army escaped the prison.
In early 2010 control of the jail was handed over to the Iraqi government by U.S. forces.
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Wednesday, 14 December 2011
