Reply #7: Bomb blast sets Iraq oil pipeline ablaze [View All]

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A bomb has exploded near one of Iraq's largest oil refineries and set fire to an oil pipeline, police said, in an attack that threatened to exacerbate the country's fuel crisis.

It was the second sabotage attack in the past few days on a pipeline feeding the Doura refinery in Baghdad, one of the three largest in the country.

It comes as Iraq grapples with a fuel crisis stemming from the closure of a major refinery in the north that has prompted panic buying of fuel and long queues at petrol stations.

The previous attack on the pipeline feeding the Doura refinery cut capacity at the plant down to 30 per cent, while the Baiji refinery in the north was shut on December 21 after insurgents threatened truck drivers transporting petrol along Iraq's perilous roads.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060101/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestoil_060101135010