Jail attack and oil pipline blazes hit Iraz

At least three Iraqis were killed and more than 60 were injured in a mortar attack on the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, US military spokesmen said today.

The attack came as Iraq was rocked by a wave of violence and apparent sabotage.

A Danish soldier was killed in a shootout with Iraqis in the south near Basra and three American soldiers were injured in separate incidents.

Two ferocious blazes raged out of control along the pipeline that exports Iraq’s oil to the north, and saboteurs blew a hole in a giant Baghdad water main, forcing engineers to cut off water to the capital.

The fires on the 600-mile pipeline stretching from northern Kirkuk to Turkey, 125 miles northeast of Baghdad, were within miles of each other.

The first began on Friday, only two days after oil exports to Turkey resumed, and the second happened on Saturday night.

Iraqi officials blamed the first blaze on saboteurs. Police Brig. Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim, the new Iraqi police commander, vowed to pursue “a group of conspirators who received money from a particular party” to blow up the pipeline. Acting Iraqi oil minister Thamer al-Ghadaban also blamed sabotage.

But US military spokesman Lt. Col. William MacDonald, of the 4th Infantry Division in Tikrit, said today that ”until it’s cooled off, nobody can say exactly what happened.”

Iraqi firefighters at the scene of the second blaze watched helplessly as smoke billowed hundred of feet into the air.

Supervisor Abdul Khaliq Akrum Fatah said for two fires to break out in such a short stretch of pipeline “is unheard of and very mysterious.”

In northern Baghdad, an explosion blew a gaping hole in a water main with a five foot diameter early Sunday, flooding streets and forcing engineers to cut off water to all of Baghdad.

Witnesses said they saw two men on a motorbike leaving a bag of explosives and detonating it minutes later.

“It was an act of sabotage,” said Majid Noufel, an engineer with the Baghdad water company. “We’ve had to stop pumping water to the whole city so we can fix the damage.”

The Danish army reported one of its soldiers died from a gunshot after stopping a truck of Iraqis on Saturday near Basra. The soldier was the first Dane killed since Denmark sent about 400 soldiers this summer to join the stabilization force around Basra.

Two Iraqis died in the shootout, one was wounded and six were arrested, the Danish army command said in Denmark.

US military spokesman Spc. Anthony Reinoso said someone fired two mortar rounds at the Abu Ghraib prison on Saturday night, killing three Iraqis and wounding 61.

He did not know whether the casualties were guards or prisoners, or who was behind the attack.

Two US soldiers were shot on Saturday coming out of a Baghdad restaurant, but were able to drive themselves to a medical facility for treatment.

An American soldier was wounded by shrapnel on Saturday when a patrol of Abrams tanks, armoured personnel carriers and Humvees was ambushed near Baqouba, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The attackers detonated a roadside bomb made of four 155mm artillery shells, then opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, said Capt. Jon Casey of the 4th Infantry Division, who was on the patrol.

“We engaged them with our own automatic weapons and called in helicopter support,” he said. “We had no further contact and secured the area.”

Further north in Mosul, the police chief survived an assassination attempt, taking two bullets to the leg,. Two people, apparently bodyguards, were killed and 14 were wounded.

Al-Ghadaban said it would take several days to get the export pipeline working again.