New York Times
August 30, 2006
A Flick Of A Lighter Kills Scores Of Gas-Looting Iraqis
By Paul Von Zielbauer
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 29 — At least 67 people, including dozens of looters siphoning gasoline from a government pipeline, were killed in an explosion late Monday night after fuel vapor was accidentally ignited by a cigarette lighter, the Iraqi police and government officials said.
The death toll from the blast in Diwaniya might increase, said Hamid al-Shuwaili, the health director for Qadisiya Province, south of Baghdad.
As of late Tuesday night, more than 100 people had been killed or found dead in the previous 24 hours, government officials said. In Baghdad, more than two dozen bodies were found, one Iraqi official said; about half of the victims had been bound and killed after apparently having been tortured.
The pipeline explosion appeared to be a result of what one official in Diwaniya called a “power vacuum” created by a battle there on Monday between the Iraqi Army and heavily armed members of the Mahdi Army, a militia controlled by the radical anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
That battle, which killed at least 20 soldiers and militiamen and 8 civilians, drew away policemen guarding the pipeline that runs through parts of Diwaniya, said First Lt. Qaisar Rasheed of the Diwaniya police. Residents then flocked to the pipeline to illegally tap the gasoline.
Despite Iraq’s huge oil reserves, corruption, mismanagement and the lack of security have created a severe gasoline shortage that has sent prices to $3.20 per gallon and forced drivers to wait in gasoline lines for as long as 24 hours.
Lieutenant Rasheed said dozens of Diwaniya residents punctured the pipeline on Monday night.
“They were filling their jerrycans until one of the looters lit a lighter to smoke his cigarette, and that resulted in the explosion,” he said.
Dr. Hussain al-Janabi, director of Diwaniya hospital, said several bodies had arrived charred or burned beyond recognition. He said by telephone that witnesses had said that the spark that ignited the blast came from a man who used a lighter to check if his can was full.
On Tuesday, the fighting was stilled in the streets of Diwaniya after the battle on Monday, and Barham Salih, a deputy prime minister, said in an interview that “it was a very tough fight” that affirmed the government’s strength. The Mahdi Army held its own against Iraqi Army troops, however, fighting them to a truce.
The fighting appeared to have erupted from street level, during a dispute between the Iraqi forces and the Mahdi militia over a militiaman the Iraqi Army had taken prisoner.
Mr. Salih also said the Iraqi government would soon shuffle some members of the cabinet. The transportation minister, a follower of Mr. Sadr, would be replaced, he said. “We will not tolerate people who have one foot in the government and one foot outside,” he said, referring to officials with ties to militias.
Sectarian violence soared after the appointment of the new government in late May, and the police, under the control of the Interior Ministry, have appeared powerless to stop it. When asked about the future of Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, which has been the subject of some speculation, Mr. Salih would not comment.
The speaker of Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a conservative Sunni Arab, said he might resign before Parliament reconvenes in September. He is widely disliked by Shiite and Kurdish politicians.
In Baghdad, at least 27 people were killed or found dead Tuesday.
In the Turath neighborhood, the police found the bodies of 11 people behind a school, an Interior Ministry official said. All the victims had been handcuffed and shot in the head, the official said, and their bodies showed signs of torture.
A mortar attack after nightfall killed four people and hurt six others, an official at Yarmouk Hospital here said. The police found another 12 bodies in other parts of the capital, the Interior Ministry official said.
In Baquba, a religiously mixed city northeast of Baghdad that has turned into a daily battleground between Sunni and Shiite Arabs, gunmen killed 11 people on Tuesday, a local police official said. Sunni gunmen killed two of Mr. Sadr’s militiamen during an attack on his provincial office, the official said.
Police officers also found the blindfolded bodies of two people in Buhruz, southwest of Baquba.
An American soldier died Tuesday afternoon when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb southwest of Baghdad, the military said.
Three other servicemen, the military said, also died on Monday: a marine with Regimental Combat Team 7, from injuries sustained in combat in Anbar Province on Monday; a Nebraska National Guard soldier from injuries suffered when his vehicle rolled over into a canal near Balad on Aug. 21; a soldier with the First Brigade, First Armored Division, from nonhostile causes; and a marine from Regimental Combat Team 5 from combat wounds suffered Monday.
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales met Mr. Salih on Tuesday in Baghdad and discussed the tactics used by Iraqi security forces to combat a wave of violence. He condemned the use of torture.
Mr. Gonzales has found himself on the defensive in the United States regarding torture. As White House counsel, he oversaw the production of legal memorandums that appeared to condone mistreatment, perhaps even torture, of detainees.
At his confirmation hearings in January 2005, critics said he was at the forefront of an effort to find legal rationales for subjecting detainees to coercive practices, putting him on the wrong side of history and in opposition to longstanding American principles.
In 2002, he sought clarification from the Justice Department as to the legal limits on the force that could be used on terrorist suspects in captivity. His query led to a much-disputed memorandum from the department that said torture could be said to occur only when the subject was in imminent danger of organ failure and that Mr. Bush as president could sanction coercive interrogation techniques in the name of national security. That definition was eventually renounced.
Ali Adeeb, Khalid al-Ansary and Edward Wong contributed reporting for this article.
yeah, let's just let 'em go at it ....