Iraq killing spooks oil markets, 3 GIs die in attack
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-17 08:43

Gunmen shot and killed an Iraqi oil security chief in the latest attack on the country's vital oil industry as exports were virtually halted by pipeline blasts in the south, depriving Iraq of its main source of revenue.

And in a strike at the US military, three US soldiers were killed and 23 wounded along with two foreign civilians in a rocket attack in the city of Balad, 75 kilometres (45 miles) north of Baghdad.

Iraqi workers repair old oil pipeline with new piping leading from the Basrah refinery to the al-Muftiah oil terminal south of the city of Basra, some 500 kms from Baghdad. [AFP]

The deaths raised to 613 the number of US soldiers killed in action since the March 2003 invasion, according to Pentagon figures.

Benchmark oil prices in both New York and London rose after the killing of northern oil fields security chief Ghazi Talabani along with his bodyguard, which followed attacks on two southern pipelines.

Talabani's death in the northern city of Kirkuk was the third killing of a high-profile public servant in the past four days, including a deputy foreign minister and a senior education ministry official.

A cousin of Kurdish political chieftain Jalal Talabani and security chief of the Northern Oil Co. (NOC), Talabani was the key link between US forces and NOC and the private security firm Erinys as they tried to shield Iraq's northern fields from attacks.

Kirkuk's main pipeline to the outside world has been virtually inoperable since the US-led invasion last year due to constant sabotage.

Having shut down the northern oil fields, insurgents have now devoted their energy to the south. Saboteurs blew up two pipelines on Monday and Tuesday, halting all southern oil exports for at least two days.

The port of Basra is the country's main outlet to sell oil, which comprises more than 90 percent of the country's revenues.

"It stopped all exports. It will take us two days to repair one of the pipelines and 10 days to repair the second," an oil ministry official said on Wednesday.

In the western province of al-Anbar, a hotbed of the Sunni Muslim insurgency, an explosion killed four foreigners and five Iraqis in an attack targeting the foreigners' vehicle in Ramadi, 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Baghdad, a hospital doctor said.

At the same time, the US military said a roadside bomb exploded as a coalition convoy was travelling along a road in eastern Ramadi, killing six Iraqis including a police officer.

It was unclear whether the two reports were about the same attack.

The latest bloodshed was tempered by an announcement from Moqtada Sadr, a radical cleric based in Najaf, that all of his militiamen who do not live in the holy city, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Baghdad, should go home.

A de facto ceasefire on June 5 came after some of the deadliest clashes in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad in April 2003.

The brief statement came a day after Iraq's new president Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar said Sadr could join national politics if he is found innocent of charges linked to the murder of a rival cleric and agrees to disband his militia.

Meanwhile one of the key architects of the US-led invasion, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and permanent secretary at Britain's defence ministry Kevin Tebbit, met Iraq's new prime minister and others here.

The visits come as both the United States and Britain work to negotiate a status of forces agreement with the government, which is due to take limited power at the end of the month.

James Jeffrey, deputy chief of mission to the new US embassy due to open next month, said the mission will employ 150 technical advisers, probably assigned to all ministries, at the invitation of the Iraqi government.

Officials also said the US military would continue to occupy parts of Baghdad airport, which according to one humanitarian group houses most of the 44 most-wanted members of Saddam's regime in coalition custody, until mid-August.

Meanwhile, a coalition source said the United States and Iraq are close to a deal to transfer ousted dictator Saddam Hussein into Iraqi legal custody although American forces will continue to guard the toppled ruler.

Saddam will be under Iraq's legal jurisdiction but the US-led coalition would still guard him, the coalition source said.

"This is the arrangement we're close to reaching," the source said.

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