Iraqi rebels blow up oil pipeline
US soldiers raided homes shortly after midnight in Fallujah, a flashpoint in the so-called Sunni Triangle where resistance to the US-led occupation has been fiercest.
Iraqi journalists reported similar raids in other areas where support for Saddam has been strong, including Samarra, 75 miles north of Baghdad, and Rawah, near the western border with Syria.
The US military said that it had detained 111 people in 48 hours in Samarra, including 15 suspected of directing attacks on Americans. The coalition has maintained intensive searches for Saddam loyalists since the ousted dictator was captured December 13.
Rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades at storage tanks in southern Baghdad on Saturday, sparking fires that burned for hours and consumed about 2.6 million gallons of gasoline, oil ministry spokesman Issam Jihad said. Iraqi police were investigating, he said.
Also on Saturday, a pipeline exploded in the al-Mashahda area, 15 miles north of Baghdad, in what Jihad said was also an act of sabotage the latest in a series of attacks on Iraq's oil infrastructure, apparently aimed at undermining the coalition.
Yesterday morning, guerrillas fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a US military convoy at a police recruitment centre in Mosul, 250 miles north of Baghdad. The grenade hit a passing civilian vehicle, seriously wounding the driver.
Some of the US soldiers in the three-truck convoy were outside their vehicles when the attack happened but were unhurt.
In Baghdad, the minister of higher education said tens of thousands of university professors might go on strike at the end of the year to demand higher wages.
Many professors earn about €145 a monthly wage set with the guidance of the US-led coalition, Zayad Abdul-Razzaq Aswad said. He said professors should earn €800 a month, roughly what they make in neighbouring Jordan.
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