Anti-U.S. Guerrillas Keep Up Pressure in Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Guerrillas kept up attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq (news - web sites) Wednesday, as an Oil Ministry source acknowledged that this week's pipeline explosion was the most destructive carried out by saboteurs to date.


Violence and sabotage hampering postwar reconstruction efforts provide a sobering backdrop to an international donors' conference on Iraq that starts in Madrid Thursday.

A roadside bomb wrecked a U.S. military vehicle in the flashpoint town of Falluja, west of Baghdad, but the military could not immediately say if there had been American casualties.

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The Oil Ministry source said Tuesday's sabotage blast that hit a cluster of four pipelines, just south of Baiji, Iraq's biggest oil refinery, was the most worrying attack so far.

more

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&ncid=578&e=7&u=/nm/20031022/ts_nm/iraq_dc

(a) the media stops reporting it, or (b) people get tired of it and simply ignore it? Will it still resonate a year from now?

<snip>PIPELINE ATTACK


The Oil Ministry source said Tuesday's sabotage blast that hit a cluster of four pipelines, just south of Baiji, Iraq's biggest oil refinery, was the most worrying attack so far.


"This was a terrible blast. It hit four pipelines and it was the first time we actually witnessed parts of a pipeline being blown up completely," he said.


"Normally there are dents, leaks and damage. But this blew up parts of the pipeline, which means repairs will take longer."


The blast tore through two lines to Baghdad's vital Daura refinery, which was already taking diverted crude oil from the south. "The Daura refinery is now starved of oil," the source said. "It's getting about 30 percent of its usual supplies."


.....Encouraging news for all of the potential donors! :eyes: