US congressmen urge attack on Iraqi pipeline

In its issue to be published tomorrow the "Editor's News" Paris-based weekly said that the US Congress is pressuring the US administration to prevent Iraq from opening its oil pipeline to the Syrian city of Banias, which has been shut down since 1982.

The weekly quoted US Congressional sources as saying that the two main Republican Congressional leaders, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott, majority leader at the Senate, last week in a report addressed to the Clinton administration urged the administration to attack the Iraqi pipeline from the air.

The sources said that when repaired, this line will be one of the most important material aids in support of "Saddam Hussein's regime, which we fight."