Bombs hit Iraq oil tanks in rare southern attack
By Rania El Gamal / Reuters / June 5, 2011
A bomb attack against an Iraqi oil storage depot set one tank ablaze on Sunday in a rare assault on strategic southern oilfields, but the country's crude exports were unaffected, Iraqi oil officials and police said.
... Dhiya Jaffar, head of the state-run South Oil Company, told Reuters the attack set ablaze one tank at the Zubair 1 storage facility, but the explosion had not affected pumping to Al Fao port, where crude exports are dispatched.
"Production has been adjusted so daily production levels and export levels are not affected. Exports are continuing at the same rate," Jaffar told Reuters.
This is a second source reporting on the same event:
Explosion in oil facility in Basra
KUNA / June 5, 2011
An explosion occurred at an oil reservoir in Al-Zubair oil field with initial reports pointing at possible attack, said a security source Sunday.
The source told KUNA that the explosion might have occurred because of a terrorist attack targeting the facility.
The location was isolated so that firefighters could contain the situation, said the source, adding that investigations were launched to determine the cause of the explosion.
Meanwhile, several acts of violence in the capital had led to the death of three Iraqi soldiers and the injury of three others while a senior official at the Ministry of Planning survived an attempt on his life but suffered some injuries as a result.
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