Roadside bomb kills two in Iraq

A roadside bomb killed at least two people in southern Iraq today, including one Iraqi policeman and a Portuguese security expert, police said.

The bomb exploded as the two were driving on a road from the southern city of Basra to nearby Zubayr, said police Captain Diaa Hussein.

The Portuguese man was a security officer for the state-run Oil Products Co. The Iraqi who died was his guard, Hussein said.

The blast destroyed their vehicle and injured another civilian man driving behind them, Hussein said.

The attack came after insurgents sabotaged Iraq’s two main southern pipelines last week, cutting off all exports out of the south. Crews are struggling to repair the sabotaged lines and are hoping to resume partial exports this weekend.

The two lines pump out about 1.5 million barrels of crude oil worth $50m (€41.5m) per day.