Word spreads of Iraqi refinery shutdown
Long lines formed at gas stations in Baghdad today as word spread that Iraq’s largest oil refinery had shut down in the face of threats against truck drivers, and fears grew of a petrol shortage.
Also in the capital, nine people sitting along the banks of the Tigris river were killed in a drive-by shooting, police said, adding that another 16 were injured.
A suicide car bomber and a mortar killed six people and injured 23 people in separate attacks today, police said.
The car bomber blew himself up next to a police patrol in a commercial area, killing three Iraqi civilians, and the mortar landed in a market, killing three Iraqi civilians and injuring 21.
The market was closed because of the holiday.
An international team, meanwhile, agreed to assess Iraq’s parliamentary elections, a decision lauded by Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups who have staged repeated protests around Iraq complaining of widespread fraud and intimidation.
They will be arriving on Monday, said Reem Arshad, and official with the Iraqi Electoral commission.
The Shiite religious bloc leading after the December 15 poll also welcomed the decision and said it would help end any doubts about the elections.
“The number of votes our ticket has got are real and the coming team will give credibility to this number,” said Ali al-Adib, a leading member of the conservative Dawa party that is a main member of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance.
Reflecting efforts to quell ongoing friction among the ethnic factions, US troops in Baghdad are beginning to focus more on training the Shiite-dominated special police forces in Iraq, Maj Gen William Webster, commander of coalition forces in Baghdad, said today.
Webster also acknowledged that Iraqi detention facilities under the control of Iraq’s Interior Ministry are still overcrowded, and the detainees, who are largely Sunni Arabs, show signs of injuries from past abuse.
But he said a series of recent inspections show no signs of recent abuse.
The United States said it would not hand over prisoners to Iraqi officials until they improved conditions in the prison system, which has seen widespread reports of abuse.
Iraq’s largest oil refinery, in Beiji, was shut down on December 18 because of the deteriorating security situation in the region, Minister of Oil Ibrahim Bahar el-Ulom said.
He said the facility “is considered one of the vital refineries in Iraq” and produces about 2 million gallons of petrol a day.
As word of the shutdown spread through the country, several hundred cars waited at one of Baghdad’s biggest petrol station.
“After the rise in petrol prices, now we have a shortage,” said Ahmed Khalaf, 33. “I left my work early, and I don’t think I will have the opportunity to return to work today because of this long line.”
Ali Moussa, a 51-year-old tanker truck driver, said he and his colleagues were working in a dangerous situation.
“We demand that the government provide security and protection,” he said.
“The Beiji storage tanks are full and there isn’t any shortage of petrol there. The problem is that drivers are too afraid to go there unless they are protected.”
Baghdad in particular has been suffering from a shortage of refined fuel, much of which is already imported because of the country’s diminished refining capacity.
A number of demonstrations have already been held around Iraq because of a December 19 increase in prices.
At the time, the price of imported and super gasoline was raised from about 7p a gallon to about 40p a gallon.
The decision announced yesterday by the International Mission for Iraqi Elections to send a team of assessors should help address opposition complaints of ballot box rigging and mollify those groups who felt their views were not being heard, especially among hardline Sunni Arab parties.
“It is important that the Iraqi people have confidence in the election results and that the voting process, including the process for vote counting, is free and fair,” US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said.
The UN team was coming despite a UN observer’s endorsement of the vote, which gave the Shiite religious bloc a big lead in preliminary returns.
The observer, Craig Jenness, said on Wednesday that his team – which helped the Iraqi election commission organise and oversee the poll – found the elections to be credible.
Sunni Arabs and secular Shiites rejected Jenness’ findings, saying their concerns – which included political assassinations before the elections – were not addressed.
There have been about 1,500 complaints lodged against the elections, including about 50 serious enough to alter the results in some districts. The overall result, however, was not expected to change.
It was unclear if the review would further delay the release of final results, now expected in early January.
An elections crisis could set back hopes for a broad-based government that would include minority Sunni Arabs as well as secular Shiites. Such a government could have the legitimacy necessary to diminish the insurgency – a key part of any US military exit strategy.
The presence of two Arab experts on the International Mission for Iraqi Elections team could go far in helping to convince Iraqis that the review of the vote will be fair.
The team will also consist of a Canadian and a European.
Preliminary results from the vote have given the governing United Iraqi Alliance a big lead – but one that would require forming a coalition with other groups.
South Korea’s parliament on Friday approved a government plan to bring home one-third of the country’s troops in Iraq but extended the overall deployment for another year. Poland agreed to a similar extension on yesterday.
South Korea’s plan calls for the withdrawal of about 1,000 of its 3,200 military personnel. South Korea has more troops in Iraq than any coalition partner except Britain.
