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Fierce Gunbattle, Oil-Well Blast in Iraq
EFL. The headline makes you think the separate events are more closely related than they really are.BAGHDAD, Iraq â U.S. troops have been involved Friday in an intense battle with enemy fighters in Fallujah, who were apparently heavily armed with mortars and rocket propelled grenade launchers. Although no U.S. casualties have been reported, doctors at the local hospital said four Iraqis died and six wounded in the assault. The battle apparently erupted when U.S. forces moved in to carry out house-to-house searches in the town west of Baghdad. Meanwhile, several hundred miles away, oil wells and pipelines are being targetted in what Iraqi officials have called terrorist acts. A pieline was set on fire near Basra, causing a huge blaze, and, in yet another different place, in northern Iraq a bomb set off a large fire at an oil well. The oil well fire raged for 24 hours before being extinguished, a senior Iraqi security official said. . . . The blast on the Northern Oil Company well in the Khabaz area, about 55 miles west of Kirkuk, occurred Wednesday night, said Gen. Mohammed Amin, the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps chief in Kirkuk. The fire was extinguished late Thursday. The well was not being tapped at the time of the blast and was not closely guarded, he said. Posted by: Mike 2004-03-26 |
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