Iraqi insurgents sabotage northern pipeline

The pipeline, which connects the Al-Dura power station, south of Baghdad, to the country's main northern oil fields around Kirkuk, was damaged overnight, an official from the state-run Northern Oil Co. told AFP.

The attack happened near Tharthar Lake, 160 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of Kirkuk, he said.

A police spokesman said the attack started a fire that was still raging early Saturday about six kilometres west of Samarra.

On Thursday, an industry official said oil exports from the north were expected to resume soon after a pipeline, set ablaze on July 15, was repaired.

All exports through the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan had ground to a halt following the attack. The key export artery has been repeatedly targeted by insurgents since last year's US-led invasion.

Separately a US military spokesman said insurgents launched mortars in the restive city of Samarra at around 2:40 am (2240 GMT Friday), but there were no casualties.

"We did not fire any counter battery," he said.

Insurgents also provoked a shootout with a US patrol, but again there were no casualties, the source added.

Meanwhile, the US military said Iraqi police, backed by US troops, foiled a suspected carbomb attack on Friday in the northern city of Mosul.

Iraqi police found a hand grenade planted on the fuel tank of a car parked on a bridge across the Tigris River, with two mortars and a rocket-propelled grenade stashed inside.

Two suspected insurgents were detained, and a weapons and ammunitions cache seized during the Mosul raid, it added.