A ferocious blaze raged for a third day at a giant oil pipeline in northern Iraq, and US military officials yesterday said it was too soon to say what triggered the fire. Earlier, Iraqi police officials blamed saboteurs.
The Danish army reported one of its soldier died after being shot during a gun battle with armed Iraqis whose truck had been stopped during a routine patrol near Basra in southern Iraq.
The soldier was the first Dane to be killed in Iraq since Denmark sent a contingent of about 400 soldiers this summer to join the occupation force in the Basra region.
Two Iraqis were killed in the shootout Saturday, one was wounded and six were arrested, the Danish army command said in Copenhagen.
In northern Baghdad overnight a big water main was hit by an explosion, flooding streets and cutting supplies to a part of the city.
Witnesses said they saw two men on the motorbike leaving a bag of explosives and detonating it minutes later in the early hours yesterday.
L. Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator of Iraq, said the country was losing US$7 million daily with the oil export pipeline out of operation.
The new Iraqi police commander had vowed on Saturday to pursue the "conspirators" behind the attack that halted oil exports to Turkey only days after they resumed, cutting off vital income for an economy in shambles.
The crumbling network of pipe had begun pumping oil to Turkey on Wednesday, and the explosion early Friday near Baiji, 200km northeast of Baghdad, cut it off completely, acting Iraqi oil minister Thamer al-Ghadaban said in the capital.
Police Brigadier General Ahmed Ibrahim, once imprisoned for speaking out against former president Saddam Hussein, was appointed Saturday to be the top Iraqi law enforcement official. He blamed the explosion on "a group of conspirators who received money from a particular party," which he didn't identify.
"With God's help, we will arrest those people and bring them to justice," Ibrahim said. "The damage inflicted on the pipeline is damage done to all Iraqi people."
But a US military spokesman said it was too soon to say whether the explosion was an accident or sabotage.
"Until it's cooled off, nobody can say exactly what happened," said Lieutenant Colonel William MacDonald, of the 4th Infantry Division based in Tikrit. People on the ground were still waiting to investigate the cause, he said.
Al-Ghadaban said it would take several days to get the pipeline working again.
"It is a large pipeline with large volume of crude oil," he said.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS: The suspects formed spy networks and paramilitary groups to kill government officials during a possible Chinese invasion, prosecutors said Prosecutors have indicted seven retired military officers, members of the Rehabilitation Alliance Party, for allegedly obtaining funds from China, and forming paramilitary groups and assassination squads in Taiwan to collaborate with Chinese troops in a possible war. The suspects contravened the National Security Act (國家安全法) by taking photos and drawing maps of key radar stations, missile installations and the American Institute in Taiwan’s headquarters in Taipei, prosecutors said. They allegedly prepared to collaborate with China during a possible invasion of Taiwan, prosecutors said. Retired military officer Chu Hung-i (屈宏義), 62, a Republic of China Army Academy graduate, went to China
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
RSS