IRAQ: SHI'ITE MILITIA SET FIRE TO OIL WELL NEAR AMARA.

Record ID: 344837

  • Title: IRAQ: SHI'ITE MILITIA SET FIRE TO OIL WELL NEAR AMARA.
  • Date: 18th August 2004
  • Summary: (EU) NEAR AMARA, IRAQ (AUGUST 17, 2004) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/LV: VARIOUS OF OIL WELL ON FIRE, FIRE FIGHTERS BATTLING FLAMES (4 SHOTS) 1.10 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 2nd September 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NEAR AMARA, IRAQ
  • Country: Iraq
  • Reuters ID: LVAEYATI9OVW4NS3DLOHH8PFI5L2
  • Story Text: Shi'ite militia have set fire to an oil well in
    southern Iraq.




    A massive fire was still raging on Tuesday (August
    17) after insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an
    oil well in southern Iraq on Sunday (August 15).

    Lilu Saadun al-Muhamadawi, head of the province's civil
    defence force said that unknown assailants had fired
    rocket-propelled grenades at an oil well at at 2:00 pm
    (1000 GMT) on Sunday (August 15), setting it on fire. He
    said that it had been impossible to extinguish the fire as
    this could only be done by using aircraft.

    The oil well is located 40 kilometres (25 miles) east
    of Amara near the village of Al-Mawil, the source said.

    While the attack on one of thousands of oil wells in
    Iraq's southern fields will have negligible impact on
    production, it underlines the threat to Iraq's oil
    infrastructure from the Mehdi army, followers of anti-U.S.

    cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

    The militia is mostly active in central and southern
    Iraq and has threatened to attack oil facilities in
    response to the U.S. offensive against Sadr and his
    followers in the city of Najaf, a centre of Shi'ite
    learning.

    The uprising has already forced Iraq to close its main
    southern oil export pipelines, reducing the country's
    export flow by almost half for the past week.

    The unrest has cut the country's exports to about
    900,000 barrels per day since saboteurs attacked the
    pipeline and a U.S. offensive against Sadr's followers
    spread to several Iraqi cities.

    A spokesman for the Southern Oil Company said the
    crucial pipeline had been shut for security reasons, piling
    pressure on world markets.


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