Saboteurs blew up an oil pipeline in Iraq on Wednesday, forcing a 10% cut in output for the national electricity grid, Iraqi officials said. The attack appeared part of an insurgent campaign against infrastructure to shake confidence in the new government.
In another challenge to the interim administration, Iraq’s two main Kurdish parties warned they might bolt the new government if the Shi’ite majority gains too much power. Kurdish fears rose after the Americans and British turned down their request to have a reference to the interim Constitution included in the United Nations resolution approved on Tuesday.
The country’s most prominent Shi’ite leader warned he will not accept mention of the interim charter in the resolution, which affirms international support for the Iraqi leadership that takes power on June 30 at the end of the US-run occupation.
Meanwhile, clashes persisted on Wednesday around Fallujah, a rebellious Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad. Four members of an Iraqi force given control of the city last April were injured when a mortar round exploded.
The pipeline blast occurred at about 9.30am local time near Beiji, 250km north of Baghdad, said Colonel Sarhat Qadir of the Kirkuk police. Huge fireballs rose into the air, witnesses said.
Oil Ministry spokesperson Assem Jihad told Dow Jones Newswires that the attack will not affect exports from the northern oil fields.
However, Jihad said the blast cut supplies to the Beiji electric power station, forcing a reduction of 400 megawatts in power generation.
Iraq now produces about 4 000 megawatts. Power cuts in the country have now reached more than 16 hours a day, making it difficult to cope with soaring heat, which is already more than 38 degrees Celsius.
Coalition officials fear that insurgents may step up attacks on infrastructure targets to undermine public confidence both in the US occupation authority and the new regime.
The US-run coalition had made its ability to guarantee adequate electricity supplies a benchmark of success in restoring normalcy to Iraq. However, sabotage and frayed infrastructure have impeded efforts to eliminate power outages, especially in the capital.
Both major Kurdish parties — the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) — conferred on Wednesday to consider a response to the decision not to refer to the interim Constitution in the UN resolution. The interim charter, adopted in March, affirms the principle of federalism and gave the Kurds an effective veto over the permanent Constitution to be drafted next year.
Kurds fear that the interim Constitution, which the Americans hailed as the most progressive in the Middle East, will be sidelined once the occupation ends and the Shi’ite clergy gains ascendancy.
The Kurds have been running their own autonomous mini state since 1991, and many Kurds would prefer their own independent country.
”Now our future is ambiguous,” said Nesreen Berwari, a Kurdish member of the interim government. ”The interim Constitution would have been the clear and bright road map to the all components of the Iraqi people.”
Berwari said she would resign if asked to do so by the Kurdish leadership.
Diplomats said reference to the interim Constitution was omitted because of opposition by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, who believes Kurdish demands are excessive. Shi’ites are believed to comprise about 60% of Iraq’s 25-million people while Kurds number about 15%.
”Until now, we have not called for a separate Kurdistan, but if the Kurds’ rights are not recognised, then we will take political measures that serve the interests of the Kurdish people,” said Mulaha Bekhtiyar of the PUK. ”For the time being, we will commit to a united Iraq.”
Bekhtiyar said that the Kurds will not agree to the Shi’ites having the ”lion’s share” of any government.
Political infighting occurs as the new government and its coalition allies struggle to improve security — the most important problem facing a sovereign Iraq.
The mortar explosion in Fallujah occurred as members of the Fallujah Brigade were setting up tanks, First Lieutenant Amer Jassim said.
”We think the US military force was targeted but the mortar missed,” he said.
Fallujah was under siege by the Marines in April after the March 31 slaying of four American civilian contractors whose bodies were mutilated and hung from a bridge over the Euphrates river in this Sunni stronghold.
After nearly a month of fighting, the siege was lifted when marine officers announced a deal to hand over security to the newly created Fallujah Brigade, commanded by officers from Saddam Hussein’s old army.
In other developments:
Assailants fired three mortar rounds on Wednesday at the office of coalition authorities in Amarah, 290km southeast of Baghdad, a British military spokesperson said. There were no reports of casualties.
A blast occurred on Wednesday at a secondary school in Kut as students were taking final exams, police said. There were no reports of casualties. Kut was the scene of heavy fighting in April between US soldiers and Shi’ite militiamen.
A group holding two hostages — a Turk and an Egyptian — threatened on Wednesday to kill the captives after Friday prayers unless their home governments condemned US actions in Iraq. The threat was made in a statement distributed in Fallujah.
The kidnappers had displayed the two hostages in a videotape obtained on June 2. They said the two truck drivers had been kidnapped because they worked with the US-led occupation.
Insurgents attacked a Baghdad city council member on Tuesday, wounding him and killing two of his bodyguards, the military said. The incident is under investigation. — Sapa-AP