Middle East News
Four killed, main oil pipeline attacked in southern Iraq (Roundup)
Jul 6, 2007, 14:19 GMT
Baghdad - Violence gripped southern Iraq Friday, with a bomb attack on a main oil pipeline extending to the al-Dawra oil refinery in the capital Baghdad and the killing of four Iraqi army officers in a separate attack.
Assem Jihad, spokesman for Iraq's Oil Ministry, said an explosive device was planted underneath the pipeline, which begins in the Udwaniya region, the independent Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency reported Friday.
The explosion caused several fires which engulfed the area with clouds of smoke. The attack is expected to productivity of the al- Dawra refinery, which has a capacity ranging from 110,000 to 130,000 barrels a day.
Separately, police sources in al-Hilla, 100 kilometres south of Baghdad, said that four army officers were killed when their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb.
In Baquba, capital of the north-eastern Diyala province, an armed group wearing Iraqi military uniforms reportedly kidnapped nine Iraqi civilians in, witnesses told VOI.
The kidnappers had reportedly set up a bogus checkpoint between Qadaa al-Khales and al-Azeem town to waylay the group.
In another incident west of Baquba, which lies 60 kilometres north-east of Baghdad, seven Iraqi servicemen travelling in a military vehicle were wounded in an explosion caused by a bomb placed on a main road.
In another development, 24 bodies were discovered across Baghdad in the 24 hours to Friday. According to local authorities, some of the bodies showed signs of torture while others were bullet-riddled.
Around 16 of the bodies were found on the edge of the western al-Kharkh area while eight were found east of the capital in the area of al-Rasafah.
Meanwhile, the number of civilians killed by a car bomb in Baghdad climbed to at least 17 people, with 25 injured, VOI reported Friday, citing police sources.
Earlier reports of the incident, which occurred Thursday in front of a restaurant in the southern part of the city, said five people were killed and 15 injured.
Meanwhile, the United States military reported that three of its soldiers died in Baghdad on Thursday. Two died and another two were injured when a mine exploded under their vehicle in the south of Baghdad.
A third US soldier was confirmed to have died in western Baghdad but no details of the incident were supplied.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Michael YonJul 6th, 2007 - 16:27:24
Since my reporting of the massacre at the al Hamari village, many readers at home have asked how anyone can know that al Qaeda actually performed the massacre. The question is a very good one, and one that I posed from the first hour to Iraqis and Americans while trying to ascertain facts about the killings.
No one can claim with certainty that it was al Qaeda, but the Iraqis here seem convinced of it. At a meeting today in Baqubah one Iraqi official I spoke with framed the al Qaeda infiltration and influence in the province. Although he spoke freely before a group of Iraqi and American commanders, including Staff Major General Abdul Kareem al Robai who commands Iraqi forces in Diyala, and LTC Fred Johnson, the deputy commander of 3-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, the Iraqi official asked that I withhold his identity from publication. His opinion, shared by others present, is that al Qaeda came to Baqubah and united many of the otherwise independent criminal gangs.
Speaking through an American interpreter, Lieutenant David Wallach who is a native Arabic speaker, the Iraqi official related how al Qaeda united these gangs who then became absorbed into “al Qaeda.” They recruited boys born during the years 1991, 92 and 93 who were each given weapons, including pistols, a bicycle and a phone (with phone cards paid) and a salary of $100 per month, all courtesy of al Qaeda. These boys were used for kidnapping, torturing and murdering people.
At first, he said, they would only target Shia, but over time the new al Qaeda directed attacks against Sunni, and then anyone who thought differently. The official reported that on a couple of occasions in Baqubah, al Qaeda invited to lunch families they wanted to convert to their way of thinking. In each instance, the family had a boy, he said, who was about 11-years-old. As LT David Wallach interpreted the man’s words, I saw Wallach go blank and silent. He stopped interpreting for a moment. I asked Wallach, “What did he say?” Wallach said that at these luncheons, the families were sat down to eat. And then their boy was brought in with his mouth stuffed. The boy had been baked. Al Qaeda served the boy to his family.
michaelyon-online.com/wp/baqubah-update-05-july-2007.htm
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