Thousands without water after attack

Iraqi people wash their cars with water flowing from a hole caused by the sabotage of a water pipeline in Baghdad Sunday. A source from the International Committee of the Red Cross said that sabotage caused huge floods in parts of Baghdad and deprived 300,000 people of running water. Photo: AFP

With summer temperatures hovering around 50 degrees Celsius (122 F), up to 300,000 people were without drinking water for a second scorching day.

And with faltering infrastructure and increasing lawlessness in parts of Baghdad, the water shortage was likely to further wear down Iraqi patience with the occupying coalition forces.

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The water-pipe attack on Sunday morning sent thousands of litres gushing into the streets of the eastern Baghdad suburb of Rasafa.

Floods in some streets created impromptu swimming pools for many Iraqis baking in the relentless heat.

Although engineers from Baghdad's water company had stopped the gushing water by Monday morning, supplies had still not been returned to many homes in the area, residents said.

The repair operation was being aided by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which lent machinery and pumping tools.

There was confusion over what caused the pipe to blow.

An ICRC spokeswoman said a rocket-propelled grenade hit the 1.6-metre (5.3-ft) diameter pipe at an open-air section near where the supply links the Sabah Missan pumping station with Rasafa.

But a local police officer said the blast was caused by an explosive placed under the pipe.

"We heard an explosion at 7:30 am (0330 GMT), and when we arrived on the scene we found a 40 centimetre (16 inch) wide hole in the pipe and water flowing out on to the road and around," policeman Majid Hamid told AFP Sunday.