Rocket hits oil site, wounds 3
BAGHDAD: A rocket hit an oil-drilling site in Iraq’s southern Basra province early yesterday, striking inside a compound housing energy giant Exxon Mobil and wounding three local workers, one seriously, Iraqi officials said.
According to security official Mahdi Raykan, a Katyusha rocket landed at dawn at a section of the camp of the Iraqi Drilling Company in the Zubair and Rumeila oil fields, where Exxon Mobil and other foreign oil companies also have caravans for workers.
Exxon Mobil, based in Irving, Texas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In May, it evacuated staff from the West Qurna 1 oil field in Basra province.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack and Iraqi oil exports were unaffected.
Tensions have escalated between Iran and the US and there are concerns that Iraq could once again get caught in the middle between its two top allies. The country hosts more than 5,000 US troops, and is home to powerful Iranian-backed militias, some of whom want those US forces to leave.
In May, the US evacuated nonessential diplomatic staff from Iraq. That came before a missile landed in Baghdad’s Green Zone, near the sprawling US Embassy.
Yesterday’s rocket was the latest attack on an area housing US interests. Over the past few weeks, rockets have also struck two Iraqi military posts where US trainers are also based. No US personnel were hurt.
Later yesterday Iraq’s military said another Katyusha rocket struck a military headquarters in the northern city of Mosul, causing no casualties. The headquarters also has US military advisers.
Iraqi army spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Rasoul said an investigation was under way and that the military leadership would not allow anyone to interfere with “Iraq’s security, sovereignty and commitment to the international community”.
Mr Raykan, the Iraqi official, said the rocket was fired from a distance of up to 5km.
It landed in the operations area of the camp, part of the Burjesia compound that houses several foreign oil companies, including Exxon Mobile and also the Italian ENI, said another Iraqi official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to address the media.
Workers of the foreign companies were not on site at the time but still in their sleeping quarters, he said, adding that Exxon Mobil staff had begun returning to the Burjesia compound, which also houses workers operating in the Qurna oil field — one of Iraq’s largest.
On Tuesday, in a move designed to prevent friction between US troops and Iran or Iranian-backed militia, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi said foreign troops and local militias in his country are barred from confronting each other on Iraqi soil.