Pipeline Fire in Iraq Could Be Sabotage

An oil pipeline fire possibly linked to sabotage burned out of control near this western city Sunday, as a U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded in a grenade attack on a military convoy south of Baghdad.

Authorities here called the blast that rocked the pipeline Saturday evening a deliberate attack, but the commander of the U.S. garrison in the area said it was too early to tell. The intense fire has impeded firefighters and investigators.

“We’re working now to get the pipeline turned off,” said Lt. Col. Henry Kievenaar, commanding officer of the 3rd Squadron of the 3rd Armored Cavalry, based near this agricultural town 100 miles northwest of Baghdad.

The fire burned even as Iraq reentered the world oil market Sunday with its first shipment of crude since the war. In neighboring Turkey, Iraqi, U.S. and Turkish officials gathered at the Mediterranean-adjacent port of Ceyhan for a ceremony launching the shipment of 1 million barrels, according to Associated Press.

The oil had been stored at the site since exports were halted March 20. It was unclear when Iraq can begin pumping fresh oil by pipeline from northern Iraq to Turkey.

Sunday’s grenade assault in the town of Khan Azad, 12 miles south of the capital, was the latest in a series of attacks that have left at least 17 soldiers dead since President Bush declared major combat in Iraq over on May 1.

The military provided no information about who is suspected in the grenade assault or whether any assailants were caught or killed.

U.S. officials have blamed the string of attacks on Saddam Hussein loyalists, troublemakers and foreign agitators. However, protests and comments by ordinary Iraqis indicate that the U.S. occupation is widely resented, despite a general sense of relief that Hussein has been deposed.

Several U.S. lawmakers, including Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), as well as Jordan’s King Abdullah II, said Sunday that uncertainty about Hussein’s fate is fueling opposition to U.S. forces -- giving regime loyalists hope that they could restore him to power and making others fearful that he might come back and take revenge on anyone who supported the Americans.

“I wouldn’t underestimate the fear that Saddam still shadows his people with,” Abdullah said on ABC’s “This Week.” “There are a lot of Iraqis out there that think that he might be still alive and might come back.... And so closure, I think, is very important for everybody.”

Abdullah said he had heard reports several days ago that Hussein might be in western or northwestern Iraq.

London’s Observer newspaper reported Sunday that U.S. missiles hit a convoy near the Syrian border last week and that American forces were conducting DNA tests on remains found at the site to see whether Hussein or his two sons were among those killed. The report could not be confirmed.

Abdullah noted that Hussein’s whereabouts had been the subject of intense speculation.

“It’s like Elvis,” he said. “There are a lot of sightings all over the place.”

Hit, with a population of 40,000, is one of a number of largely Sunni Muslim towns to the north and west of Baghdad where opposition to the U.S. presence has been forceful. Residents here rioted last month, ransacking the police station and setting patrol cars on fire.

Several inhabitants of Hit linked the explosion to rumors here that Iraqi oil would soon be sold to Israel.

“They will never get our oil,” vowed Ziad Najeeb Rasheed, a 35-year-old restaurant owner who applauded what he viewed as a deliberate attack on the installation.

As Iraqi oil begins flowing again, the question of whom it will be sold to -- and who will get the proceeds -- has taken on new urgency. On Sunday, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, suggested that revenue could be distributed directly to the country’s citizens, as Alaska does with its residents, or placed in a national trust fund for pensions or other social programs.

“Every individual Iraqi would come to understand that his or her stake in the country’s economic success was there to see,” Bremer said at the World Economic Forum in Jordan.

It was unclear what effect, if any, Sunday’s pipeline fire and shutdown would have on supplies. Area residents said they understood the pipeline carried crude oil destined for sale in Jordan. Officials have voiced fears that the looting of oil installations and possible acts of sabotage could threaten the full return of Iraq’s major industry.

Hit was also the site of a landmine attack Saturday that rocked a U.S. military Humvee, injuring at least one soldier. His wounds were not considered life-threatening.

Also near Hit, U.S. soldiers Saturday evening opened fire on a car that failed to stop at a checkpoint, killing one Iraqi and wounding another, said Kievenaar. The troops fired warning shots first, he said.

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Times staff writer Alissa J. Rubin in Baghdad contributed to this report.