Saboteurs Target Oil Pipeline in Northern Iraq; Police Killed in BaghdadBy Chris Tomlinson Associated Press Writer Published: Feb 14, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Insurgents blew up a pipeline in Iraq's northern oil fields and killed two senior police officers in Baghdad, officials said Monday, while political leaders sized up their positions in a new government following the release of election results.
The oil field attack occurred at the North Oil Company's Al-Dibbis oil field near Kirkuk, said Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammad Amin. The pipeline supplied oil for internal use and the damage will hamper the country's oil production, he said.
It would take workers at least three days to extinguish the blaze and repair the pipeline, Amin said. Insurgents have regularly targeted Iraq's oil infrastructure, cutting exports and denying the country much-needed reconstruction money.
In Baghdad, gunmen firing from a car killed two high-ranking policemen Sunday night, an Interior Ministry official said. He provided no other details.
Insurgents also fired six mortars at a police station in central Baghdad, but there were no immediate reports of injuries, police said.
The violence comes after election officials announced the results of the Jan. 30 elections.
A Shiite Muslim clergy-backed slate won 48 percent of the votes and 140 of the 275 National Assembly seats, according to results released Sunday in Baghdad. A Kurdish ticket got 26 percent and 75 seats, while a secular Shiite party won 40 seats. Nine parties divided the remaining 20 seats.
"This is a new birth for Iraq," election commission spokesman Farid Ayar said, announcing results of the Jan. 30 polling, the first free election in Iraq in more than 50 years and the first since Saddam fell. Iraqi voters "became a legend in their confrontation with terrorists."
The announcement of election results, though, did not slow down the violence in Iraq, as insurgents continued to focus their attacks on Iraqis working with coalition forces and members of the Shiite majority.
An Iraqi translator for Italian troops and his son were shot to death Sunday in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, a spokesman for Italy's military said. The spokesman said officials were investigating and so far had no leads. The exact circumstances of the shooting were unclear.
An Iraqi militant group claimed in an Internet statement Sunday that it had kidnapped an Iraqi Christian translator who worked at a U.S. military base. The claim, posted on a Web site known as a clearing house for militant statements, could not be immediately verified.
The group said the man is from Baghdad and works for Titan, a U.S. company in "the biggest U.S. military base" in the west of Baghdad, which it called the "lion base." Titan is responsible for hiring most translators working for the U.S. military.
The kidnappers of a Swedish citizen in Iraq have demanded a ransom for his freedom and threatened to decapitate him if they don't receive it, a Stockholm radio station reported Monday.
The kidnappers, who call themselves "The Martyr al-Isawy Brigades," also want Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf to take part in negotiations for the freedom of Minas Ibrahim al-Yousifi, the purported leader of the Christian Democratic Party in Iraq, his family told Radio Joenkoeping over the weekend.
Sweden, which didn't participate the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, has no embassy in Iraq.
"We have no further comments, as this is a consular issue and very sensitive," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jesper Liedholm told the AP. "We have been in contact with the Iraqi authorities and other countries' embassies in Baghdad."
Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 180 foreigners during a bloody campaign to force U.S.-led coalition troops to leave Iraq. Many have been killed; others remain in captivity, have been released for ransom, freed or have escaped.
AP-ES
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Insurgents blew up a pipeline in Iraq's northern oil fields and killed two senior police officers in Baghdad, officials said Monday, while political leaders sized up their positions in a new government following the release of election results.
The oil field attack occurred at the North Oil Company's Al-Dibbis oil field near Kirkuk, said Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammad Amin. The pipeline supplied oil for internal use and the damage will hamper the country's oil production, he said.
It would take workers at least three days to extinguish the blaze and repair the pipeline, Amin said. Insurgents have regularly targeted Iraq's oil infrastructure, cutting exports and denying the country much-needed reconstruction money.
In Baghdad, gunmen firing from a car killed two high-ranking policemen Sunday night, an Interior Ministry official said. He provided no other details.
Insurgents also fired six mortars at a police station in central Baghdad, but there were no immediate reports of injuries, police said.
The violence comes after election officials announced the results of the Jan. 30 elections.
A Shiite Muslim clergy-backed slate won 48 percent of the votes and 140 of the 275 National Assembly seats, according to results released Sunday in Baghdad. A Kurdish ticket got 26 percent and 75 seats, while a secular Shiite party won 40 seats. Nine parties divided the remaining 20 seats.
"This is a new birth for Iraq," election commission spokesman Farid Ayar said, announcing results of the Jan. 30 polling, the first free election in Iraq in more than 50 years and the first since Saddam fell. Iraqi voters "became a legend in their confrontation with terrorists."
The announcement of election results, though, did not slow down the violence in Iraq, as insurgents continued to focus their attacks on Iraqis working with coalition forces and members of the Shiite majority.
An Iraqi translator for Italian troops and his son were shot to death Sunday in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, a spokesman for Italy's military said. The spokesman said officials were investigating and so far had no leads. The exact circumstances of the shooting were unclear.
An Iraqi militant group claimed in an Internet statement Sunday that it had kidnapped an Iraqi Christian translator who worked at a U.S. military base. The claim, posted on a Web site known as a clearing house for militant statements, could not be immediately verified.
The group said the man is from Baghdad and works for Titan, a U.S. company in "the biggest U.S. military base" in the west of Baghdad, which it called the "lion base." Titan is responsible for hiring most translators working for the U.S. military.
The kidnappers of a Swedish citizen in Iraq have demanded a ransom for his freedom and threatened to decapitate him if they don't receive it, a Stockholm radio station reported Monday.
The kidnappers, who call themselves "The Martyr al-Isawy Brigades," also want Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf to take part in negotiations for the freedom of Minas Ibrahim al-Yousifi, the purported leader of the Christian Democratic Party in Iraq, his family told Radio Joenkoeping over the weekend.
Sweden, which didn't participate the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, has no embassy in Iraq.
"We have no further comments, as this is a consular issue and very sensitive," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jesper Liedholm told the AP. "We have been in contact with the Iraqi authorities and other countries' embassies in Baghdad."
Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 180 foreigners during a bloody campaign to force U.S.-led coalition troops to leave Iraq. Many have been killed; others remain in captivity, have been released for ransom, freed or have escaped.
AP-ES
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