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| Iraq |
| Iraq mines Kirkuk oilfields, say travellers |
| 2003-03-12 |
| Iraq has mined its northern oilfields of Kirkuk, dug a huge oil-filled trench around the city and sealed off Kurdish districts, travellers arriving in the Kurdish free zone from Kirkuk said yesterday. Their reports could not be independently confirmed. Foreigners cannot enter Iraqi government-held territory, in which Kirkuk, the oil capital of northern Iraq, lies, from the Kurdish free zone to the north. But a steady flow of travellers arriving at the border checkpoint of Qushtapa in the Kurdish area yesterday all told substantially the same story, as did the checkpoint's guards, who get regular updates from travellers. "My uncle is a worker in the oilfields and he says they have mined all the oilfields around Kirkuk," said a taxi driver who has been plying the route between Kirkuk and Arbil, the largest city in the Kurdish free zone, for several years. Kirkuk, historically Kurdish but from which many Kurds have been expelled in recent years, accounts for around 800,000 barrels per day of Baghdad's total exports under the UN- sponsored oil-for-food deal of some 1.7 million barrels per day. Like all the people Reuters spoke to at Qushtapa, the driver, who lives in Kirkuk and returns there every evening, spoke on condition of anonymity. Others also said they believed the oilfields had been mined. The driver said he had not yet faced any problems crossing the front line between Iraq and the Kurdish area, which has been effectively independent, protected by a U.S. and British patrolled no-fly zone, since the Gulf War. Another Kirkuk resident, who runs a small transport business and crosses the border every day, said that a series of trenches about 50 metres long, 20 metres wide and four or five metres deep had been dug about 15 days ago all around Kirkuk. "They are full of black oil," he said. Multiple sources seem to confirm the report that Sammy plans to light these trenches full of oil to create a smoke screen. He said he could not confirm rumours of oilfields being mined. He also said he believed that a major bridge on the road between Kirkuk and Mosul, the other main city in government-held northern Iraq, had been mined. I'd mine it, I'm sure the Iraqis have as well. A guard at the checkpoint said a barge had been moored nearby for use if the bridge was blown up. The driver who said his uncle worked at the oilfields added that Iraqi police, ruling Baath party officials and other security agents started sealing off Kurdish areas of Kirkuk on Monday night, searching for guns and weapons, and preventing residents from leaving or entering. This was repeated by several others crossing the border. Sounds about right, worried about the Kurds rising up and taking the city in advance of a US strike. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 Remember - this is crude oil. The consistancy is closer to tar than the oil you may be thinking of. |
| Posted by: Bill 2003-03-12 12:15:47 |
| #2 When I read "Kurdish free zone", I take it I should interpret that as "a relatively free area controlled by Kurds" and not "a zone free of Kurds"? |
| Posted by: Dar Steckelberg 2003-03-12 09:43:47 |
| #1 Wouldn't oil soak into the ground if you just poured it into trenches? |
| Posted by: Chuck 2003-03-12 09:36:32 |