Clashes break out in Iraqi oil city of Baiji

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/OWE167667.htm

BAIJI, Iraq, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Insurgents took to the streets of the oil centre of Baiji in north Iraq on Thursday and clashes broke out with Iraqi security forces, witnesses said.

The gunmen stopped cars in several streets, they said.

Baiji is home to Iraq's biggest refinery. A pipeline network that includes the Iraq-Turkey export pipeline passes near the Sunni Muslim city.

Security officials said they were trying to beef up protection of the pipeline system after insurgents threatened a newly formed protection force recruited from tribes in the area. snip

Reuters footage showed a pipeline that appeared to have been ripped apart by a bomb. Oil officials said it was a domestic pipeline running to the Dora refinery in Baghdad.

more

[maddezmom]

1. IIRC, 11 killed in clashes yesterday

[maddezmom]

2. 11/10 - 10 civilians killed in Baiji, 26 wounded

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200411/s1240729.htm

[lebkuchen]

3. I sure am glad we have enough troops to handle all these uprisings

~

[0007]

6. We're traveling light and lightening fast these days.

Too many troops = slow travel. Where did I hear that?

[jobycom]

4. Two years-- that's how long it will take

before the first al-Qaeda government fully controls Iraq. Wouldn't it be interesting if they chose UBL as their leader, and we had to beg him for oil?

[Zhade]

9. You really think the Iraqi people want an al Qaeda government?

Or are you being facetious?

[jobycom]

10. Not being facetious

I don't think the Iraqi people wanted Hussein, but Hussein was the strongest guy around, and was able to bring a brutal type of peace to the region by supressing all the different factions who wanted to rise up and take control.

I think that's how an al-Qaeda backed leader will take over. He will be the one leader with enough resources to push us out of Iraq, or bleed us dry trying. That will give him enough clout to control the thirteen different factions (or however many they say there are) and bring some stability to the country. He will also be the one who will prevent stability unless he becomes the leader.

So yes, I'm serious about that prediction.

[Zhade]

11. I guess it depends on if Abu Musab al-Goldstein can consolidate power.

Since I'm pretty sure he's been dead for a long time, I'm not all that worried about a (wannabe) al Qaeda (knockoff) gaining control of Iraq.

Most of the resistance is made up of non-terrorist fighters, the majority of them native Iraqis fighting against those who invaded their land (see www.juancole.com or www.empirenotes.org for verification of this). Tahid wal Jihad is more interested in attacking the 'infidel' Shi'a than in running an actual government, methinks.

[alcuno]

5. My Iraqi geography has improved exponentially.

3 years ago, the rest of my fellow Americans and I knew NOTHING about Iraq and could not have cared less about it. Why? Because we knew it was some Arab country run by a dictator that hadn't ever threatened us.

But now? I can name many cities in Iraq and point out their locations on a map. I know regionally if they are in Sunni, Shia, or Kurdish areas. I know what those three words mean AND I can name all sorts of Iraqi names when before I only knew one, Saddam Hussein.

Sure we have people in the United States who can't name the vice-president, but now they are learning really important stuff like what it means to be in the middle of a Holy War.

[tinymontgomery]

7. I find this quote quite appropriate

War is God's way of teaching Americans geography.
-Ambrose Bierce, writer (1842-1914)

[karlrschneider]

8. FUBAR is On the March...

:eyes: