Another attack on pipeline as Saddam's troops win pay battle
Another attack on pipeline as Saddam's troops win pay battle
James Hossack, Agence France-Presse, Baghdad
Iraq's fuel pipelines came under fresh attack on Monday by elements apparently bent on disrupting U.S. plans to use Iraqi oil revenues to rebuild the country, as Saddam Hussein's soldiers won a pay battle with coalition forces.
The third attack on Iraq's pipelines in less than two weeks hit in the northwest of the country on what was thought to be a key fuel line to Syria, amid a warning that such attacks could become a daily occurrence.
"The ministry is aware of an attack near al-Abidiyah al- Gharbiya not far from the Syrian border," an oil ministry official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"It seems there are people prepared to mount such attacks every day on Iraq's pipelines," he added, after a gas duct exploded west of Baghdad on late Saturday in a blast described by residents as sabotage.
U.S. military officials said they were unable to confirm the attack, which comes as the latest challenge to their plans to use the country's vast oil wealth -- the world's second largest known reserves -- to fund reconstruction.
Oil prices spiked after the blast, with fears that a deteriorating security situation could affect the resumption of crude exports.
Despite U.S. officials insisting that the security situation in Iraq is improving, the blasts have exposed how easily those opposed to the U.S. occupation are able to disrupt rebuilding efforts.
Former soldiers from Saddam's regime, who have been in dispute with the coalition forces over severance pay since U.S. authorities last month dismantled the Iraqi army, meanwhile won a key pay battle.
"The first payments to former soldiers will begin on July 14," the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) said in a statement, in a policy U-turn, after initially insisting the troops would only receive a one-off payment.
The monthly payment would range from US$50 to $250 for up to 250,000 former professional soldiers, it said, adding that another 300,000 conscripts would receive a one-off settlement.
The soldiers, out of a job since last month and desperate for pay, had threatened to mount attacks on U.S. troops unless the coalition either paid the money they were owed, or reinstated them in their old jobs.
U.S. troops opened fire during an angry protest by ex-soldiers at the U.S. civil headquarters last Wednesday, killing two people. It was the first time U.S. troops had shot protesters in Baghdad since the city fell to U.S.-led forces on April 9.
The statement also gave details of the New Iraqi Army the U.S. authorities are to establish, adding that recruiting for that force would begin next week.
"A division of 12,000 soldiers will be trained and operational in one year," the authority said, adding that the force would increase within two years to three divisions of 40,000 soldiers.
Regular and deadly attacks on U.S. forces along with the three pipeline blasts in recent days have overshadowed efforts to drag the country back to normality and to get its oil industry running at full capacity as quickly as possible.
Top U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer warned on Saturday at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Jordan -- before the two latest explosions -- that Iraq's level of oil exports could fall foul of a deteriorating security situation.
"We have had repeated acts of political sabotage against the pipelines and the refineries in the last month, obviously efforts by the supporters of the previous regime to disrupt our capacity to work with the Iraqi people," he said.
"We're going to have to deal with that, you could have some problems meeting production levels," he said.
Repairs to the pipeline linking Iraq's northern oil city of Kirkuk with the Turkish Mediterranean terminal in Ceyhan were still ongoing after an attack on June 12, forcing a delay in pumping oil destined for export, which had been expected to resume on Sunday.