Iraqi oil pipeline attacked

[cal04]

Insurgents in Iraq have attacked an oil pipeline just outside the capital Baghdad - the third attack on the country's oil infrastructure in as many days. Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has accused the saboteurs of trying to destabilise the whole region.

Last week, insurgents cut eight of the 20 main lines supplying the southern export terminals and at the weekend new attacks resulted in a spectacular blaze in the same area. Some analysts say Iraq's exports have been cut by 30 per cent, but a spokesman for the South Oil Company said exports remained stable at 1.5 million barrels a day.

the saboteurs are seriously damaging efforts to rebuild the country. "This is a sign of a determined enemy to wreck Iraq and wreck the political process in Iraq and to undermine the whole region and shake the peace of the world," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200408/s1188488.htm