- The security chief for Iraq's northern oil fields has
been gunned down in the latest political killing, two weeks before Iraq
regains its sovereignty.
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- Ghazi al-Talabani was shot dead in the city of Kirkuk
- the third Iraqi official to be killed since Saturday.
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- It is another blow for Iraq's oil industry, already at
a standstill after a series of attacks on pipelines.
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- In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, a bomb has killed nine people,
including four foreigners, Iraqi doctors said.
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- The latest attacks came as US Deputy Defence Secretary
Paul Wolfowitz was in Baghdad to discuss security issues with coalition
and Iraqi officials.
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- The killing of Mr Talabani is the latest in a string
of such attacks in the run-up to the 30 June handover of power to an interim
Iraqi government.
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- Officials targeted
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- The oil official died in a hail of bullets on his way
to work. His driver was seriously wounded.
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- Correspondents say Iraqis involved in rebuilding the
country are increasingly being targeted as the scheduled transfer of power
on 30 June draws near.
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- Iraq's interim Deputy Foreign Minister Bassam Qubba was
killed by gunmen in Baghdad on Saturday. The following day, a senior education
ministry official, Kamal al-Jarrah, was shot dead.
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- A few days earlier, Deputy Health Minister Ammar Safar
had escaped an attempt on his life, while Ezzedine Salim, leader of the
now dissolved Iraq Governing Council, was assassinated in a car bomb attack
last month.
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- Now, the escalating attacks on the oil industry are crippling
Iraq's only source of independent revenue.
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- The key southern terminals are expected to remain shut
down for several days following a series of bomb attacks on pipelines.
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- In the latest incident, saboteurs blew a hole in one
of the key southern pipelines for the second time in 48 hours, an Iraqi
oil source told Reuters news agency.
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- The attacks have cut off all crude oil all exports from
Iraq's southern terminals in Basra and Khor al-Amaya, which had been handling
virtually all the country's exports.
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- The southern terminals were exporting 1.6m barrels of
oil a day, and the aim had been to increase output to 2m barrels a day
by 30 June.
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- The shutdown will cost Baghdad nearly $60m a day, analysts
said.
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- Benchmark oil prices edged up in both New York and London
on Wednesday following news of the attacks.
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- A pipeline in northern Iraq was bombed on Tuesday evening,
but exports had already been crippled as a result of previous attacks.
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- The pipeline from the oilfields around Kirkuk to Ceyhan
in Turkey has barely been in operation since the March 2003 US-led invasion
because of repeated sabotage.
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- Iraqi oil exports are still below the pre-war level,
even though a 14,000-strong Iraqi guard force has been set up specifically
to protect pipelines and other vital parts of the oil infrastructure.
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- Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi says pipeline sabotage
has cost the country more than $200m in lost revenues over the past seven
months.
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- © BBC MMIV
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3811539.stm
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