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| Iraq |
| Bomb hits IraqÂ’s main commodity port |
| 2013-08-18 |
| A truck bomb exploded at Iraq’s main commodities port near the oil-exporting southern city of Basra, wounding four people on Saturday, but officials said shipping traffic at the Umm Qasr docks was not affected. Umm Qasr port, near Iraq’s border with Kuwait, sits at the top of the strategic Gulf waterway and does not export oil. Imports handled there include grain shipments and heavy equipment used in the energy industry. The site is close to the city of Basra, about 420km southeast of the capital Baghdad. The blast damaged an out-of-service Iraqi ship anchored there and wounded four porters, the head of the Basra provincial security committee, Jabbar Al Saedi, told Reuters. “It’s a serious breach to the port security and a terrorist act targeting Iraq’s economy,” he said. The truck had been parked near one of the port’s unloading berths, he added. Shipping movements and unloading operations at the port were not disrupted by the explosion, said Mahdi Askar, an official with the state-run General Company for Maritime Transport. |
| Posted by:Steve White |