Iraq sabotage-struck
Oil pipeline ablaze; water line blown up; six Iraqis, Danish soldier, Reuters cameraman killed
Reuters, Baghdad
A fresh wave of sabotage and violence took its toll on Iraq yesterday as a second blaze hit a crucial oil export pipeline, a water pipeline was blown up and six Iraqis were killed in a mortar attack on a Baghdad prison. A Danish soldier was killed as he tried to stop looting on Saturday night and a Reuters cameraman was shot dead while working near a US-run prison on the outskirts of Baghdad. Iraq's crucial oil export pipeline to Turkey, which saboteurs attacked two days ago, was ablaze again on Sunday following another blast. A North Oil Company official at the scene said it was caused by an explosion on Saturday night. The fire was near the site of Friday's blaze which officials blamed on a bomb. Iraq's governor said on Sunday the country's tottering economy was losing $7 million a day due to the attack on the pipeline. In other violence, the US military said six Iraqis were killed and 59 wounded in a mortar bomb attack on a US-guarded prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad on Saturday night. "Three mortar rounds impacted the scene. Three prisoners died on impact and three others died in hospital," a US Army spokesman said. About 500 Iraqi detainees, including common criminals and suspected anti-American guerrillas, are being held at Abu Ghraib prison, which was one of Saddam Hussein's most notorious jails. It was not clear who was behind the attack. Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana, 41, a Palestinian who has worked for Reuters for a decade, was filming outside Abu Ghraib prison when he was shot, witnesses said. A spokesman for Iraq's US-led administration said an investigation was under way. Dana's death brings to 17 the number of journalists or their assistants who have died in Iraq since war began on March 20. In southern Iraq, where rampant looting of copper electricity cables has caused widespread blackouts and slashed oil output, a Danish soldier was killed on Saturday evening in a gun battle with thieves who had been stealing power lines. He was the first foreign soldier not from the US or British military to be killed in Iraq since the launch of the invasion that toppled Saddam in April. A military spokesman said the incident happened west of Basra after a routine Danish patrol tried to arrest eight Iraqi looters.
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