Gunmen attacked a US-run civilian convoy in Iraq's western desert yesterday and some personnel were unaccounted for, US officials said. Iraq's oil minister said a weekend bombing at a southern pipeline had cut oil exports by 30 percent.
In another attack on foreigners working in Iraq, one Russian worker was confirmed dead and two others were abducted, Russian officials said yesterday.
In a videotape released yesterday, armed people claiming to be members of a radical Shiite Muslim militia threatened suicide attacks on US forces and their allies in Iraq.
The video showed about 10 black-cloaked men and women posing with grenade launchers and Kalashnikovs, while a female voice and then a male voice read threatening messages in Arabic.
"We will carry out martyrdom operations against the American infidels. We will make it another Vietnam if our leader Seyed Muqtada al-Sadr is hurt," a woman's voice said, referring to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, currently holed up in the holy city of Najaf under the protection of his armed militia, the al-Mahdi Army.
In the attack on the US convoy, an unknown number of vehicles were destroyed near the town of Rutba, 370km west of Baghdad, on the road between Iraq and Jordan, the officials said. The convoy was operated by a contractor of KBR, or Kellogg, Brown & Root, which is a subsidiary of Halliburton.
Meanwhile, an American civilian was found dead with signs of trauma on the corpse near a highway overpass in Baghdad, the US military said yesterday.
The man, whose identity was not released, was not connected with the US military or a civilian government mission in Iraq, a military spokesman said. The body was discovered on Saturday.
On Monday, three Russian employees of an energy company working at a power station south of Baghdad were returning to the capital when assailants fired on their car. The Russian Foreign Ministry said one worker was killed and the other two taken hostage.
An Iraqi citizen serving as a bodyguard and translator was wounded in the attack 30km south of Baghdad, said Yevgeny Loginov, spokesman for the Interenergoservis energy company.
Iraqi oil exports fell by 30 percent because of a weekend bombing on a southern pipeline, the oil minister said yesterday. Ibrahim Bahr al-Ulloum said he expects the exports to return to normal levels within 24 hours.
The attack happened Saturday and damaged a 15m section of pipe. The oil minister said a fire at the site was still burning, but was "almost under control."
The attack signaled that such facilities in southern Iraq could now be a target for insurgents. Southern Iraq had been relatively quiet until a revolt last month by militiamen loyal to al-Sadr.
Late Monday, US forces clashed with al-Sadr's gunmen in the southern city of Kufa, killing at least five Iraqis and injuring 14 others, hospital officials said.
Kufa is near Najaf, where al-Sadr took refuge last month after US authorities announced they were seeking him in the assassination last year of a moderate cleric.
US troops have been involved in sporadic clashes with al-Sadr's forces for weeks. But the Americans have avoided an all-out assault on Najaf to avoid inflaming Shiite passions.
The new US-appointed Najaf governor said yesterday he will ask occupation authorities to defer murder charges against al-Sadr under a proposed deal to end the standoff with his Shiite Muslim militia.
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