LAT: Baghdad Gas Crisis Blamed on Insurgent Sabotage

[DeepModem Mom]

Baghdad Gas Crisis Blamed on Insurgent Sabotage
Officials say attacks on pipelines and depots around the capital have increased, disrupting supply. Lines stretch for miles at fuel stations.

By Ashraf Khalil and Suhail Affan, Times Staff Writers


BAGHDAD — A monthlong gasoline crisis that has paralyzed the Iraqi capital is the result of an insurgent sabotage campaign aimed at choking off fuel supplies to Baghdad, officials say.

Although attacks on the country's overall oil infrastructure have decreased, pipelines and supply depots around the capital have been increasingly targeted, Western and Iraqi officials report. And with ambushes and bombings making many roads to Baghdad unsafe, fewer tanker trucks are able to deliver fuel to the capital.

Lines at Baghdad gas stations stretch for miles. Officials say the attacks seem designed to further stress the beleaguered population, sow tension and diminish confidence in the U.S.-backed interim government. The shortage is a testament, they say, to insurgents' increasing sophistication....

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Oil Ministry spokesman Assim Jihad described the sabotage efforts as a calculated and savvy campaign of economic and psychological warfare, designed to emphasize the government's inability to provide even the most basic services....


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-gas9dec09,0,7121802.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[NYC]

1. In other words, it's Iraq's fault.

[leftchick]

2. they can fool the muriKans with this BS...

but they aren't fooling any Iraqis. Life was pretty fucking good until the USA came to town.

[teryang]

3. Cutting off the petroleum, basic military tactic

Nothing sophisticated about it:

"And with ambushes and bombings making many roads to Baghdad unsafe, fewer tanker trucks are able to deliver fuel to the capital."

The daily attacks on the pipelines are purposeful and deliberate. The insurgency is being directed by professionals who know what they're doing.