US steps up protection of oil pipelines

An international security company has been awarded a contract for 6,500 guards to ensure no further damage is done to the main oil pipeline to Turkey. The new recruits will be in addition to the 5,000 Iraqis already protecting the 600-mile structure.

Iraqi’s oil industry is supposed to play a crucial part in financing the reconstruction of the country, but attacks over recent days have put a question mark over those plans. Yesterday, a fire was still raging on the main pipeline to Turkey, with US authorities saying it would take ten days to control.

Iraq has the world’s second-largest proven crude reserves, at 112 billion barrels, but its pipelines, pumping stations and oil reservoirs are dilapidated after more than a decade of neglect.

The sabotage on the Turkey pipeline costs $7 million in lost revenue every day, as the US-led administration struggles to pay for post-war reconstruction.

Paul Bremer, the US administrator, told CNN: "These are probably people left over from the old regime who are simply fighting a rearguard action by attacking Iraq’s assets.

"We’ve had these attacks on a pretty regular basis over the last three months," he added, "causing literally billions of dollars of losses to the Iraqi people."

Residents near the latest blasts say that when Saddam Hussein was in power, he deployed air patrols around key oil facilities and stationed troops at checkpoints along pipelines.

"Where are the Americans? All they do is fly a few Apache helicopters at night and take some photographs and that is it," said an Iraqi oil worker.

The pipeline from the northern Kirkuk oilfields to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan had the capacity to pump more than a million barrels per day (bpd) before the war, and was due to pump at 250,000 bpd initially.

Just as the first fire was brought under control on Saturday, a second blaze broke out a few miles away.

"They usually come around at night. Over the last three days we were awoken by three explosions and we saw huge flames," said Kamal Fareesh, a petrol-station worker near the latest blasts.

"Every time they fix one part of the pipeline they blow up another. It is very easy. They just drive up and explode a grenade."

In the north of Baghdad, many neighbourhoods remained without water yesterday after a bomb blew an enormous hole in a water main. Nearby, the sense of chaos continued as huge fires burned in warehouses in north-east Baghdad, where a guard said 50 gunmen had charged past him, looting spare parts from buses and other state vehicles and setting fires piles of old tyres.

Mohammed Jabber said an American Army patrol passed the area about 30 minutes later but took no action.

Yesterday’s move to increase security along the pipeline came as the US military apologised for shooting a journalist over the weekend, saying one of its soldiers had mistaken the camera he was carrying for a rocket-propelled grenade.

Mazen Dana, a 41-year-old Palestinian who worked for the Reuters news agency, was filming outside Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison yesterday when was shot. He was the 17th journalist to be killed during the war in Iraq.

Dana had won several awards for his coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Dana’s last pictures showed two US tanks approaching. The nearest appeared to be about 50 yards away when six shots rang out and the camera fell to the ground from his shoulder.

Dana was believed to have been killed by the first shot, which penetrated his chest and left a huge exit wound in his back.

"He screamed one time, and he was putting his hand on his chest and fell down on the ground and start screaming," said Nael al-Shyoukhi, who was working with Dana as a sound technician.

"I saw him bleeding. I looked, I saw the American soldiers around us, and I screamed to the same soldier who shot him, ‘Why did you shoot him? We are TV. You see him with a camera, why did you shoot him?"’

Al-Shyoukhi said the situation had seemed normal before the military opened fire.

"I don’t understand why they start shooting at us. It was his last day in Baghdad, he was supposed to go to Amman, meet with his wife and children."

Lt Col Guy Shields, the top US spokesman in Baghdad, said he was sorry about the death, but that US forces did not have to fire warning shots if they felt at risk. "I can’t give you details on the rules of engagement, but the enemy is not in formations, they are not wearing uniforms," he said. "During wartime, firing a warning shot is not a necessity. There is no time for a warning shot if there is potential for an ambush."

He told reporters an investigation was under way into the shooting.

In New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists called Mazen "a calm but determined witness who took constant risks in order to tell the world the news", and called for a full investigation.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said it was "appalled and shocked" by the shooting.