Iraqi Gas Pipeline On Fire After Act Of Sabotage

HILLA, Iraq, Aug 25 (AFP) - An important gas pipeline in southern Iraq was on fire Wednesday after an act of sabotage, a spokesman for the Hilla Oil Company told AFP.
"Unidentified attackers caused an explosion today in a gas pipeline used to transport liquid gas from the province of Basra to the other towns in the south, setting off a fire in the pipeline," Muayyed Yussef, a company engineer, said.
"The explosion happened at 7:00 am (0300 GMT) at Aawazel, a region about 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Hilla", which is 100 kilometres (62 miles) south of Baghdad, he added.
The pipeline feeds the south of Iraq with gas for local consumption, but the fire was still raging at the end of the morning and teams of firefighters were on the scene trying to get the blaze under control, Yussef said.
Supporters of rebel Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr have repeatedly threatened to strike at Iraq's oil and gas pipelines in the south of the country if US and Iraqi troops are not withdrawn from Najaf, where on Wednesday they had Sadr's militia pinned down in the revered Imam Ali mausoleum.