Gas pipeline explosion in southern Iraq kills 3, injures 51
An explosion at a gas pipeline in southern Iraq killed at least three people, including two children, on Saturday after a blast in the north earlier this week forced the closure of another pipeline, authorities said. More than 50 people were also injured in the incident, police sources said on Saturday.
The statement from the Security Media Cell, affiliated with the country’s security forces, said the explosion resulted from propane canisters being transported in Muthana province near the southern city of Samawa, around 270 km south of Baghdad.
The blast occurred along a stretch of pipeline that goes near a militia camp, according to police sources. Gas officials said the pipe there had seen leaks in the past.
Firefighters managed to contain the fire after shutting down the gas line, police said.
The military said in a statement that the cause of the blast was not
known. It said nine Shiite militia fighters were among the wounded. The Oil Ministry said in a statement it had sent technical crews to repair the damaged section. Gas flows would resume in the “next hours” via an alternative pipeline, to avoid shortages of supplies to power stations.
An investigation was launched to determine cause of blast, the statement cited Deputy Oil Minister Hamid Younis as saying.
Iraqi energy officials said the domestic line transports gas from some of the southern fields to feed power stations in some southern cities and a key power station near Baghdad.
The explosion has no effect on Iraq’s gas production and processing operations, two gas officials said.
The blast follows an earlier strike that targeted an oil pipeline in the north of the country, according to a statement by the Kurdistan Regional Government released late on Friday.
The statement said oil exports had been suspended after “terrorists” attacked the pipeline crossing the autonomous region to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on Wednesday evening.
It did not specify on whose territory the explosion took place nor who might have been behind it.