Bombings across Iraq, pipeline ablaze cuts exports via Turkey

[leftchick]

AFP gives some very good reporting here regarding the latest events in Iraq....


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040803/wl_mideast_afp/iraq&cid=1514&ncid=1480

<snip>

The dawn attack damaged the main pipeline to Ceyhan and stopped exports, said Nasir Qassim, an official with the state-owned Northern Oil Company.


The road connecting Kirkuk with the refineries in Beiji was cut off as emergency workers battled to extinguish the raging flames and thick black smoke, which could be seen all the way from Kirkuk.


Meanwhile, a French aid group confirmed that four Iraqi employees in the southern city of Samawa were killed while travelling to Najaf.


The bodies were found in a cemetery in Najaf on Monday with multiple stab wounds and one of them had his eyes gouged out, a relative said.

[lottie244]

1. How much more safe can it get?

If it got any safer we would all be dead!

[skip fox]

2. Boy, I know I'm feeling better! Maybe when I'm dead, I'll feel

even more secure.

[jmcgowanjm]

3. "security and stability operations"

The latest from Mafkarat al Islam:

UNPRECEDENTEDLY FIERCE BATTLES RAGE
IN AL-FALLUJAH SUNDAY NIGHT

the Iraqi Resistance split the column into two large pieces
and then intensified their attack upon them. Fires burned
fiercely in at least 10 places within the surrounded US
column

At 11:10pm Mecca time Sunday night the fierce
Resistance barrage on the US camp was still
underway, according to the local correspondent of
Mafkarat al-Islam.

(How many casualties could CentCom cover up
if it really had to.

http://www.paktribune.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2448

[reprobate]

11. If just a little of what they claim is true, many americans died.

But then underreporting of american casualties is a staple of the pentagon.

DOES NOBODY REMEMBER VIET NAM?

Hopefully after the election Kerry will demand a true accounting of our troops killed and injured in this whore on terra.

Where can I get tickets to witness the trial sentancing of those responsible for this?

[gasperc]

4. looks like were hurtling towards Duestche Bank's $100/barrel warning

ouch!!!!!

$3+ a gallon, there goes our disposable income

[Jackpine Radical]

9. You read my mind, Gasperc.

BTW--hows things in da Cities?

[Barrett808]

5. kick

[Sabriel]

6. Scuse me, gotta go top off the tank....

I smell BP/ExxonMobil/Gouger profits on the rise....

[young_at_heart]

7. Is this happening because they know "we" are winning?

I read this in my paper today....the increase in attacks are happening because the insurgents know their days are numbered.

[Barrett808]

8. Attack halts oil exports through Iraq's northern pipeline

KIRKUK, Iraq (AFP) - A major attack on the main pipeline connecting the oil fields of Kirkuk with the Turkish port of Ceyhan has halted limited exports from northern Iraq, a Northern Oil Company official said.

"An improvised explosive device was placed close to a network of pipelines at the level of Al-Fateha, west of Kirkuk, causing a big explosion and huge fires that damaged the main pipeline running to Ceyhan and stopped exports," Nasir Qassim, a logistics and security official with the state-owned company, told AFP.

He said the attack occurred at about 6:00 am (1400 GMT) in an area 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of Kirkuk.

The road connecting Kirkuk with the refineries in Beiji to the west was cut off as emergency workers battled to extinguish the raging flames, with Iraqi police and national guard units, and multinational troops securing the area.

Sand barriers were also erected to contain the fires, an AFP correspondent witnessed, as thick black smoke covered the skies and could be seen all the way from Kirkuk.

A oil ministry spokesman in Baghdad declined to comment on the attack.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040803/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_oil_attack_exports

[leftchick]

10. From Al-Jazeera...

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A8D2F4B0-9395-4890-8DB5-924B3BEDE999.htm

<snip>
An oil ministry spokesman in Baghdad declined to comment on the attack.

But a source from al-Shamal oil company told Aljazeera that the explosion would affect oil production a great deal.


The key northern artery only resumed work on Sunday carrying 200,000 barrels a day, after an attack in mid-July halted exports.


Until the end of June, the pipeline had been out of commission for about 10 months after a series of attacks.

[DeaconBlues]

12. Iraq must really be an ecological disaster

With the tragedy of all the people dieing in that poor nation, we tend to forget these sort of things. The war has been a disaster on so many levels.