Iraqis panic as death threats cut oil supply

LONG lines formed at petrol stations in Baghdad yesterday as word spread that Iraq's largest oil refinery had shut down in the face of threats against truck drivers, and fears grew of a petrol shortage.

Also in the capital, a suicide car bomber and a mortar killed six people and injured 23 people in separate attacks, police said. The car bomber blew himself up next to a police patrol in a commercial area, killing three Iraqi civilians, and the mortar landed in a market, killing three Iraqi civilians and injuring 21. The market was closed because of the Friday holiday.

An international team, meanwhile, agreed on Thursday to assess Iraq's parliamentary elections, a decision lauded by Sunni Arab and secular Shi'ite groups who have staged repeated protests around Iraq complaining of widespread fraud and intimidation.

The Shi'ite religious bloc leading after the December 15 poll also welcomed the decision and said it would help end any doubts about the elections.

"We welcome the coming of this team to end doubts about the election results. The number of votes our ticket has got are real and the coming team will give credibility to this number," said Ali al-Adib, a leading member of the conservative Dawa party that is a main member of the Shi'ite United Iraqi Alliance.

Iraq's largest oil refinery, in Beiji, was shut down on December 18 because of the deteriorating security situation in the region, Minister of Oil Ibrahim Bahar el-Ulom said yesterday. He said the facility "is considered one of the vital refineries in Iraq" and produces about two million gallons of petrol a day.

As word of the shutdown spread through the country, several hundred cars waited at one of Baghdad's biggest petrol station.

Ali Moussa, a 51-year-old tanker truck driver, said he and his colleagues were working in a dangerous situation.

"We demand that the government provide security and protection," he said. "The Beiji storage tanks are full and there isn't any shortage of gas there. The problem is that drivers are too afraid to go there unless they are protected."

The decision announced Thursday by the International Mission for Iraqi Elections to send a team of assessors should help address opposition complaints of ballot box rigging and mollify those groups who felt their views were not being heard, especially among hardline Sunni Arab parties.

The UN team was coming despite a UN observer's endorsement of the vote, which gave the Shi'ite religious bloc a big lead in preliminary returns.

Sunni Arabs and secular Shi'ites rejected Jenness' findings, saying their concerns - which included political assassinations before the elections - were not addressed.