Iraq: Next Pipeline Attack

Tuesday the saboteurs blew up a pipeline near the southern Iraqi port city of Basra.
The blast shut down oil exports from the area?s two terminals. After the attack, oil workers tried to use a supplementary pipeline, but it could not endure the pressure, being constructed in the 1970s; and then exports stopped from Basra oil terminal and Khor Al-Amaya.
The two blown-up pipelines had capacities of 50,000 barrels and 30,000 barrels per hour correspondingly.
The saboteurs struck at 11:50 AM, blowing up a portion of the main pipeline to Basra?s terminal, Hashem said.
This was at least the fourth attack on Iraq?s oil pipelines in nine days. Oil prices soared after news of the sabotage.
In other violent incidents, a series of explosions rocked a US base at the eastern entrance of the city of Karbala yesterday.