Massive Blast Disrupts Oil Exports as more Captives Killed in Iraq

03/09/2004| IslamWeb

Iraq's northern oil exports were dealt a massive blow when a vital pipeline to Turkey was hit by its largest post-war attack, halting exports only days after Iraq clinched its first term contract. The pipeline with Turkey was shut down on Thursday, said Ahmad Hassan Ghafif, head of security for gas and oil pipelines in northern Iraq. "The Iraq-Turkey oil pipeline targeted this afternoon is about 40-inches wide and today's attack can be considered the biggest since sabotages started a year and a half ago," he added. "The explosion cannot be controlled because the pipeline was working at full power and there are large quantities of oil in it," he added. Ghafif said that the whole oil-rich city of Kirkuk was engulfed in a thick cloud of black smoke and predicted 48 to 72 hours were needed to extinguish the blaze. **Sand barriers*** "There are common efforts between the fire department, National Guard and Iraqi police who have, as a first step, erected sand barriers to prevent the oil from spreading," he said. "The people in the nearby villages had to be evacuated for fear of intoxication," he also said. The highway was shut down by occupation and Iraqi forces, because the pipeline is too close, some 40 to 50 metres, Ghafif said. "The expected losses are counted in millions of dollars because the pipeline was working at full capacity," Ghafif said. Oil from the northern Iraqi oilfields around Kirkuk had been pumping at a rate of 600,000 to 800,000 barrels per day in recent days. **Second bomb*** The bomb exploded at 1830 (1430 GMT) on a road next to the pipeline near the town of Riyadh, 50 km south of Kirkuk, said Major General Anwar Hamid Amin of the Kirkuk national guard unit. A second bomb was found five km away from the first, but it failed to explode, Amin said. The pipeline was attacked at its southern section, where it heads to the country's largest oil refinery in Baiji, before cutting back north towards neighboring Turkey. Repeated sabotage of Iraq's oil industry has cost the country more than a billion dollars in revenue. In particular, the lucrative Kirkuk fields had been brought to a virtual standstill in exports by resistance fighters for well over a year. A recent string of attacks has also damaged several pipelines in southern Iraq. That area accounts for 90% of exports from the country, which sits atop the world's second-largest oil reserves. Reacting to the disruption, the price of a barrel of oil soared past the 45 US dollar mark again in New York. **More Captives Killed in Iraq*** Three Turks held in Iraq have been killed, an armed group tells Aljazeera, highlighting the dangers facing foreign workers in the conflict-ridden country. The group calling itself al-Tawhid and al-Jihad threatened to kill more foreigners in Iraq, in a video message received on Thursday. It warned the "time for forgiveness has gone". The tape showed the three hostages alive, clutching their passports, while one of the captors read a statement before carrying out the execution. The recording has not been broadcast. Iraqi police have reportedly found the bodies of three lorry drivers on the side of a road north of Baghdad. Two of them have been identified as Turks but it was not immediately clear if they were the same men shown in the video. **Turkish fortunes*** Several Turks have been captured during the Iraq conflict alongside dozens of other foreigners and have suffered mixed fortunes at the hands of their captors. A Turkish lorry driver who had been held captive in Iraq since 7 August was freed on Wednesday. His release coincided with the freeing of seven employees of a Kuwaiti trucking. And two Turkish engineers captured by an Iraqi group were freed on Sunday after the companies they work for said they would withdraw from Iraq to save their lives. But the bodies of two Turkish captives were found on 27 August found in the key oil refinery town in the Sunni Muslim belt that stretches north and west from the Iraqi capital. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Iraqi firemen attempt to control the fire on a sabotaged oil pipeline south of Baghdad. (AFP)