Oil Pipeline near Karbala Blown Up

Saboteurs have long prevented oil from being pumped from Kirkuk to Turkey through sabotage of the oil pipelines. But on Sunday they struck in the south, as well, at the Baghdad-Basra oil pipeline. The guerrillas are attempting to keep the country from stabilizing with regard to fuel and services, in hopes of making the US and its successor regime unpopular on a continuing basis.

Wire services report, 'In the first attack of its kind in the south since the collapse of Saddam's regime, an oil pipeline was targeted near Karbala, 110km from Baghdad, an official Iraqi source said "An explosion damaged the pipeline and we don't know who the saboteurs are," local Karbala official Hamid Salah al-Shebib said. '