Iraqi accusations of striking petrol pumping station
Iraq-USA, Politics, 4/3/1999

A spokesman for the Iraqi Petroleum Ministry announced that a US - British joint raid destroyed yesterday Iraq's main station for pumping raw petroleum to El-Basrah harbor on the Gulf.

The spokesman said two persons were injured due to attacks launched in southern Iraq yesterday, which indicates the resumption of tensions the Iraqi skies after a calm that lasted for more than two weeks.

An Iraqi statement added that Iraqi jets chased US and British warplanes to their bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

An official source stated that the allied forces are not moving to open a new front in Iraq while the battles last in the Balkans, pointing out that the Balkans require the full concentration of the US and British forces.

But the exportation process of the Iraqi oil via al-Baker port continued today despite the damages inflicted on the control station as a result of the strikes.

A spokesman for the Iraqi oil ministry said that oil flows to the ship containers despite the air strikes which hit the station, but he did not define the volume of damages inflicted in the said station.

However, the main station which controls the pumping of the Iraqi crude oil towards al-Baker port on the Arab Gulf was destroyed during a US-British raid launched on Friday. the Iraqi oil ministry stressed the exportation operation are continuing slowly, thanks to a back-up system.

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