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02/03/2006:

"Attack Jolts Iraq Oil Business as Civilian, Troop Tolls Rise"

BAGHDAD — A mortar attack set ablaze a major petroleum facility in the northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday, stopping refining at the plant and further damaging Iraq's beleaguered oil industry.

Iraqi oil workers were still fighting the fire late Thursday, and U.S. officials held high-level meetings in Baghdad to assess the damage. An Iraqi executive with the North Oil Co. called the incident the "most severe attack we have ever faced on an oil installation." The mortar rounds also hit an important pipeline to Turkey that was already out of commission and was being repaired, the executive said.

The cessation of production forced the shutdown of an electricity plant that ran on petroleum supplied by the refinery.

U.S. officials said they had not yet determined how severely the attack would hamper oil production in Iraq, which fell 8% last year to half the 3 million barrels a day envisaged by American officials at the time of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Violence swept through the nation Thursday, taking the lives of at least 26 Iraqis. The U.S. military also announced the deaths of seven American servicemen since Wednesday.

In Shiite Muslim-dominated east Baghdad, car bombs detonated at a gas station and a popular market, sending up towers of fire that killed 16 people and injured 90.
latimes.com