Category: Iraq

A campaign rally at a ramshackle old soccer stadium on Friday afternoon began with open-air theater that crossed centuries of Shiite lore, from the martyrdom of a revered religious figure to the fight today against Sunni extremists, played by actors dressed as fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a radical Islamist group. It ended with an outbreak of violence, three explosions, one after the other, in the parking lot, as thousands of people were leaving: a car bomb, a suicide bomber and a roadside bomb. More than 30 people were killed and many others wounded in an attack that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria said in a statement it had carried out. The bombings struck a rally held by a Shiite militant group, Asaib Ahl al-Haq , that is trying to transform itself into a political force by fielding candidates in Iraq’s […]

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A multiple bomb attack that killed at least 33 people at a campaign rally for a militant Shiite group likely unleashed a series of apparent sectarian attacks in Iraq, signaling the start of a new wave of Sunni-Shiite bloodletting ahead of elections next week, security officials said Saturday. An al-Qaida breakaway group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack on the Baghdad rally, which drew about 10,000 backers of Asaib Ahl al-Haq. It said on a militant website that the bombings were to avenge what it called the killing of Sunnis and their forced removal from their homes by Shiite militias. The authenticity of the claim could not be independently verified. A senior Asaib Ahl al-Haq official said the 33 dead included 10 group members who had fought in the Syrian civil war. Its members fight with forces loyal to […]

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Russian oil company Lukoil is considering joining a joint venture to develop the Nassiriya oil field in Iraq, the company’s board of directors said.Lukoil, Russia’s largest private oil company, said its board of directors were considering a joint venture with its counterparts at Russia’s state-owned exploration and production company Zarubezhneft to develop the oil field and help build an associated refinery. Lukoil is already involved in developments of the West-Qurna 2 project in southern Iraq. The company said it recently signed an agreement with the Iraqi Ministry of Industry to estimate the prospects for building a plant that would utilize gas associated with the oil field. First oil was produced from West Qurna-2 in March. It reached a daily production reach of 120,000 barrels and has an estimated 34 billion barrels worth of recoverable reserves. Iraqi oil production from January to February, the last […]

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Russian oil company Lukoil is considering joining a joint venture to develop the Nassiriya oil field in Iraq, the company’s board of directors said.Lukoil, Russia’s largest private oil company, said its board of directors were considering a joint venture with its counterparts at Russia’s state-owned exploration and production company Zarubezhneft to develop the oil field and help build an associated refinery. Lukoil is already involved in developments of the West-Qurna 2 project in southern Iraq. The company said it recently signed an agreement with the Iraqi Ministry of Industry to estimate the prospects for building a plant that would utilize gas associated with the oil field. First oil was produced from West Qurna-2 in March. It reached a daily production reach of 120,000 barrels and has an estimated 34 billion barrels worth of recoverable reserves. Iraqi oil production from January to February, the last […]

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Oil from federally controlled oil fields could flow through Kurdistan’s new export pipeline to Turkey within six months. Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has agreed in principle to use its new pipeline to export crude oil produced by the federal North Oil Company (NOC) – an initiative which could strengthen economic ties between Erbil and Baghdad and change the political dynamics of Iraq’s long-running disputes over oil policy.Under the prospective plan, Kurdistan’s Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and the NOC would work together to commission a new 36-inch pipeline to connect federal…

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The April 16 bombing of pipelines near the Tigris has sent oil spilling into the river and endangered the water supply for millions of Iraqis. Diyala province has closed water intakes along the Tigris River, as oil slicks attributed to the April 16 bombing of pipelines feeding the Baiji refinery are heading toward Baghdad.Preventative measures were taken the morning after the attack on the oil and gas pipelines in the al-Fatha area along the Tigris River in Salahaddin province.Oil in the water and on shore was set ablaze to reduce the amount of pollutants in the water, initially causing massive black clouds and then persistent…

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A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a police checkpoint south of Baghdad on Thursday morning, killing at least 11 people, officials said, the latest episode in an uptick in violence in the run-up to next week’s parliamentary elections. The attack struck during the morning rush hour, when the checkpoint at one of the entrances to the city of Hillah, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad, was crowded with commuters. Among the 11 killed were seven civilians and four policemen while 27 people were wounded in the bombing, a police officer said. The blast also damaged about 15 cars nearby. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The Shiite-dominated city of Hillah has seen sporadic violence recently. Last month, a suicide car bomber hit another checkpoint […]

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Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is banking on sales from the highest crude oil output in 35 years to earn him a third term even as he struggles against an emboldened al-Qaeda and a surge in political violence. Maliki, 63, is seeking a majority in April 30 parliamentary elections to extend his hold on power in the nation of 33 million people, where he first took office in 2006. The new parliament will also choose a president to replace Jalal Talabani, who has been receiving medical treatment in Germany since suffering a stroke in December 2012. “Maliki is still the front-runner, but he has lost support,” Robin Mills, the head of consulting at Dubai-based Manaar Energy Consulting and Project Management, said by phone on April 20. “For a new government to be successful, it has to go much beyond the energy sector, and it will have to actually start […]

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