Wave of sabotage hits Iraq

A fresh wave of sabotage and violence took its toll on Iraq yesterday as a second blaze hit a crucial oil export pipeline, a water pipeline was blown up and six Iraqis were killed in a mortar attack on a Baghdad prison.

A Danish soldier was killed as he tried to stop looting on Saturday night and a Reuters cameraman was shot dead while working near a US-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Iraq's crucial oil export pipeline to Turkey, which saboteurs attacked two days ago, was ablaze again yesterday following another blast.

A North Oil Company official at the scene said it was caused by an explosion on Saturday night. The fire was near the site of Friday's blaze which officials blamed on a bomb.

Iraq's governor said yesterday the country's tottering economy was losing $7 million a day due to the attack on the pipeline.

In other violence, the US military said six Iraqis were killed and 59 wounded in a mortar bomb attack on a US-guarded prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad on Saturday night.

"Three mortar rounds impacted the scene. Three prisoners died on impact and three others died in hospital," a US Army spokesman said.

About 500 Iraqi detainees, including common criminals and suspected anti-American guerillas, are being held at Abu Ghraib prison, which was one of Saddam Hussein's most notorious jails. It was not clear who was behind the attack.

In southern Iraq, where rampant looting of copper electricity cables has caused widespread blackouts and slashed oil output, a Danish soldier was killed on Saturday evening in a gun battle with thieves who had been stealing power lines.

He was the first foreign soldier not from the US or British military to be killed in Iraq since the launch of the invasion that toppled Saddam in April. A military spokesman said the incident happened west of Basra after a routine Danish patrol tried to arrest eight Iraqi looters.

Major Ian Poole, spokesman for the British military in Basra, said two of the Iraqis were also killed in the battle and the remaining six were arrested.

Washington blames die-hard Saddam supporters and foreign militant groups for sabotage of Iraq's infrastructure and attacks on US forces that have killed 60 American troops since the United States declared major combat over on May 1.

Saboteurs blew up a water pipeline serving the north of Baghdad yesterday, flooding streets with a cascade of water. Locals said they had been woken by a loud blast and saw a car speeding from the scene.

"This was an act of sabotage," Assam Othman, chief engineer for the area's water system, said at the scene. "It does not hurt the Americans, it hurts ordinary Iraqi people."

Paul Bremer, the governor of Iraq, said sabotage was depriving the country of desperately needed funds.

Sabotage of fuel pipelines, theft of power cables and frequent breakdowns of decrepit equipment have dogged attempts by the US-led administration to rebuild Iraq's ramshackle oil industry, restore basic services and revive the economy.

The US-led administration says it has a conservative oil revenue forecast of $12 billion for 2004. But if the Kirkuk pipeline cannot be kept open and the southern oilfields remain starved of electricity, exports could fall well short.

Even if the target is met, officials say, the international community will have to come up with more than $5 billion in aid at a donors' conference planned for Madrid in October, just to keep the floundering economy afloat next year.