Areas of Baghdad fall to militias as Iraqi Army falters in Basra

[Koora-Tuunshe]

Areas of Baghdad fall to militias as Iraqi Army falters in Basra

Iraq’s Prime Minister was staring into the abyss today after his operation to crush militia strongholds in Basra stalled, members of his own security forces defected and district after district of his own capital fell to Shia militia gunmen.

 

With the threat of a civil war looming in the south, Nouri al-Maliki’s police chief in Basra narrowly escaped assassination in the crucial port city, while in Baghdad, the spokesman for the Iraqi side of the US military surge was kidnapped by gunmen and his house burnt to the ground.

 

Saboteurs also blew up one of Iraq's two main oil pipelines from Basra, cutting at least a third of the exports from the city which provides 80 per cent of government revenue, a clear sign that the militias — who siphon significant sums off the oil smuggling trade — would not stop at mere insurrection.

 

In Baghdad, thick black smoke hung over the city centre tonight and gunfire echoed across the city.

 

The most secure area of the capital, Karrada, was placed under curfew amid fears the Mahdi Army of Hojetoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr could launch an assault on the residence of Abdelaziz al-Hakim, the head of a powerful rival Shia governing party.

 

While the Mahdi Army has not officially renounced its six-month ceasefire, which has been a key component in the recent security gains, on the ground its fighters were chasing police and soldiers from their positions across Baghdad.

 

Rockets from Sadr City slammed into the governmental Green Zone compound in the city centre, killing one person and wounding several more.

 

Mr al-Maliki has gambled everything on the success of Operation Saulat al-Fursan, or Charge of the Knights, to sweep illegal militias out of Basra.

 

It has targeted neighbourhoods where the Mahdi Army dominates, prompting intense fighting with mortars, rocket-grenades and machineguns in the narrow, fetid alleyways of Basra.

 

In Baghdad, the Mahdi Army took over neighbourhood after neighbourhood, some amid heavy fighting, others without firing a shot.

 

In New Baghdad, militiamen simply ordered the police to leave their checkpoints: the officers complied en masse and the guerrillas stepped out of the shadows to take over their checkpoints.

[Koora-Tuunshe]

I wonder where this oil money goes while the press talks of the increasing debt resulting from this war? This is one pipeline out of many.

 

Bomb attack hit crucial Iraqi pipeline

 

From Times Online March 27, 2008

 

The Zubair-1 pipeline attacked earlier today is used to transport crude oil from fields in Southern Iraq to the country's two main export terminals in the Gulf at al-Umaiya and Basra.

 

The attack is expected to cut oil exports from the Basra region - which were around 1.54 million barrels per day in February - by roughly one third until the pipeline can be repaired.

 

The incident helped lift global crude prices close to highs of nearly $107 per barrel in London trading this morning.

 

Iraq's total average production for February was 2.4 million barrels per day - roughly 80 per cent of which was accounted for by fields in the the Basra region.

 

Basra’s Rumaila South and North oil fields together produce around 1.3 million barrels per day. Several smaller fields in the region including Suba, Luhais, West Qurna and Zubair, account for most of the rest of the region’s output.

 

Iraq’s Southern Oil Company (SOC) operates the fields and has its headquarters in Basra. One of Iraq's three big oil refineries, the Shuaiba refinery, is also in Basra. It has a capacity of 160,000 barrels a day but is currently functioning below capacity.

 

Iraq’s fragile economy relies heavily on oil exports to help fund reconstruction efforts.

 

Timesonline