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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Trying To Start A Fight, With Iraq?
2009-12-18
Al-Amara, Iraq - Iranian troops have claimed an oil well on the border of southern Iraq, a senior Iraqi military officer said Friday. Iranian troops on Thursday "occupied" the "Number 4" oil well in the Eastern Maysan oil field, located in the border district of al- Fakah, Brigadier-General Dhafir Nadhmi said in a statement Friday.

Nadhmi said that Iranian forces had taken control of the well, dug a trench around it, deployed armoured vehicles, and raised the Iranian flag over the well.

The officer's claims could not immediately be independently verified.

When, in June 2009, Iraq opened bidding on the rights to develop its oil fields to foreign companies, the government said it would create a state-run oil company to boost production from "neglected" Maysan province.

The largely marshy region, some 450 kilometres south of Baghdad, currently produces between 100,000 and 110,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd), the government said in June, with the aim to boost production from the province to more than 300,000 bpd in five years.
Posted by: Anonymoose

#7  cut off their retreat and trade em for the Berkeley dipshits they're holding.
Posted by: Frank G   2009-12-18 22:06  

#6  "They'll hang out there for a while, until they get tired, and as soon as they go away, the Iranians come down the hill and paint it Iranian colours and raise an Iranian flag. It happened about three months ago and it will probably happen again."

Great. Who gets the oil?
Posted by: gorb   2009-12-18 21:30  

#5  IMO Iran's greater objective would be to test the Bammer's mettle vee Israel + AFPAK as Iran's + ME Oil, ee US-NATO control of same, is always a geopol concern for Russ + China.

Right now Radical Islam sees the whole of CENTRAL-EAST ASIA coming into its hands, EVEN WITH A LARGER US-NATO MILPRES IN AFPAK.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2009-12-18 18:26  

#4  As Nero and others fiddled in Copenhagen.
Posted by: JohnQC   2009-12-18 14:37  

#3  Apparently this is an ongoing dance. According to AFP:

NASIRIYAH, Iraq (AFP) – Iranian forces took control of a southern Iraqi oil well on a disputed section of the border on Friday, US and Iraqi officials told AFP.

"There has been no violence related to this incident and we trust this will be resolved through peaceful diplomacy between the governments of Iraq and Iran,"

"The oil field is in disputed territory in between Iranian and Iraqi border forts," a US military spokesman told AFP at Contingency Operating Base Adder, just outside the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, adding that such incidents occur quite frequently. "An oil ministry delegation is to travel to the area on Saturday to assess the situation."

Well 4 lies in the Fauqa Field, part of a cluster of fields Iraq unsuccessfully put up for auction to oil majors in June. The field has estimated reserves of 1.55 million barrels.

The field is about 500 metres (yards) from an Iranian border fort and about 1 kilometre from an Iraqi border fort, US Colonel Peter Newell said, adding that it falls on the Iraqi side of a border agreed between the two countries.

There are five other similar fields that also fall into disputed territory, he said.

"What happens is, periodically, about every three or four months, the oil ministry guys from Iraq will go ... to fix something or do some maintenance. They'll paint it in Iraqi colours and throw an Iraqi flag up.

"They'll hang out there for a while, until they get tired, and as soon as they go away, the Iranians come down the hill and paint it Iranian colours and raise an Iranian flag. It happened about three months ago and it will probably happen again."
Posted by: trailing wife   2009-12-18 11:51  

#2  I'm sure we have a few hundred shells we can loan the Iraqi artillery.
Posted by: OldSpook   2009-12-18 10:15  

#1  A10 time!
Posted by: Frank G   2009-12-18 09:58  

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