Allied noose tightens on southern oil region

US AND British forces yesterday tightened their grip on Iraq’s southern oil region and began assessing how to restart exports from fields holding more than half the country’s oil wealth.

Only the northern oil hub, Kirkuk, remains out of their grasp, slowing Washington from its declared goal to safeguard the country's billions of barrels of reserves on behalf of ordinary Iraqis.

Their mission is viewed with widespread suspicion by many who see the war as a US bid to ensure cheap and steady supplies from the world's seventh biggest exporter.