U.S.-led forces occupying Iraq have faced almost-daily attacks

BAGHDAD, August 17 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) –  In a fresh wave of violence rocking the war-shattered Iraq, a Danish soldier and nine Iraqis were killed in separate attacks on Sunday, August 17, as fire still raged on Iraq’s key oil export pipeline to Turkey two days after an act of sabotage.

Two Iraqis and a Danish soldier serving in the international stabilization force in Iraq were killed in a clash overnight near the southern city of Basra, a British army spokesman said.

"A Danish soldier has been killed overnight. He died of gunshot wounds. Two Iraqis were also killed," said the spokesman from Basra, without giving details.

The Danish army command was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying from Copenhagen that gunfire had erupted as the soldier and his unit tried to examine a truck carrying several Iraqis in Al-Madinah, 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Basra on Saturday, August 16.

Apart from leaving two Iraqis dead, another was injured in the exchange, while Danish troops detained a further six, the command said.

U.S.-led occupation forces immediately dispatched ambulances, a doctor and a British rescue helicopter to the scene, which took the Danish soldier to an army hospital near Basra, where he died shortly afterwards.

But a defense ministry official in Copenhagen said the Danish soldier may have been accidentally shot by a member of his own unit.

Ministry spokesman Kim Grundberger said that Colonel Nils Bundgard, commander of the Danish forces in Iraq, had debriefed the unit.

"He spoke to the men who were there, and it is possibly an accidental shot," he said, adding that a team from Denmark was due to arrive in Iraq later Sunday to investigate the incident.

The Dane, identified as Corporal Preben Pedersen, 34, was the first to be killed in Iraq since Denmark contributed 420 soldiers to help secure the region around Basra following the U.S.-led invasion to Iraq.

The contingent had previously been involved in several gunbattles, but not sustained any casualties.

Rocket-propelled Grenade

Iraq’s oil pipeline saw a second ferocious blaze raging out of control

In a fresh attack on the occupation forces, an Iraqi was killed and two U.S. soldiers wounded in two separate attacks.

The Iraqi was killed when a U.S. patrol came under rocket-propelled grenade fire in Taji, 15 kilometers (nine miles) north of Baghdad, and returned fire, Lieutenant Colonel Bill MacDonald said.

The tow U.S. soldiers, meanwhile, were wounded near Balad, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device, MacDonald said, adding that the soldiers were in a stable condition.

MacDonald said that U.S. soldiers detained 30 people in overnight raids, adding that two of them were targeted "mid-level" former regime officials.

U.S.-led forces occupying Iraq have faced almost-daily attacks the Americans blamed on loyalists of Saddam's ousted regime.

But anti-American sentiments against forces are running high among many of ordinary Iraqis jeering at continued occupation of their oil-rich country and slow pace of improvement on the ground. 

Mortar Attack

Also Sunday, six Iraqi detainees were killed and 59 others wounded late Saturday in a mortar attack on Abu Gharib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, the U.S. army said Sunday.

The army said in a press release that three mortar rounds hit the prison, which is part of a U.S. military base there.

Three detainees died on the scene and another three died later as a result of their wounds, it said. The other wounded detainees were evacuated to a U.S. military hospital.

Rights group Amnesty International reported on July 23 that Iraqis detained by U.S. troops in the prison accused their captors of torture and degrading treatment.

Calling on the occupying forces to bring human rights violators to justice, the London-based rights watchdog said in a study based on interviews with former prisoners of U.S. forces across Iraq that detainees also said troops had shot some captives.

IslamOnline.net correspondent in Iraq said that many resistance attacks against American forces in Baghdad are carried out near that prison, which raised the possibility that mortars might have went beyond their targets.

Turkish Forces Attacked   

"The damage to the pipeline means seven million dollars losses every day," Bremer

In the meanwhile, a grenade thrown from a passing car exploded outside the Turkish mission in Baghdad Friday, causing neither casualties nor damage, an employee said Sunday.

"An unknown assailant threw a grenade in the direction of the embassy at 9 pm (1700 GMT) on Friday," the employee said, adding that it exploded outside the wall of the compound and caused no damage.

The Jordanian mission in Baghdad was the scene of a car bomb blast on August 7 that left at least 14 people dead.

Foreign missions in Iraq have enjoyed no diplomatic status since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime by a U.S.-led forces in April 2003.

Raging Fire

In the meanwhile, Iraq's crucial oil export pipeline to Turkey, which saboteurs attacked two days ago after an act of sabotage, was ablaze again on Sunday following another blast.

A North Oil Company official at the scene said it was caused by an explosion on Saturday night.

The fire was near the site of Friday's blaze which officials blamed on a bomb.

Iraq's governor said on Sunday the country's tottering economy was losing $7 million a day due to the attack on the pipeline, in which fire is still raging.

The fire stretched several hundred meters (yards) along the pipeline, which is buried one meter (3.3 feet) beneath the surface. A huge black cloud of smoke rose up from the blaze.

"The damage to the pipeline means seven million dollars losses every day," said the U.S .civil administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer.

The pipeline from Iraq’s northern oilfields around Kirkuk to the Turkish terminal of Ceyhan was attacked early Friday when unknown assailants blew up a section near Baiji.

The attack came just two days after the key export route was finally reopened following the U.S.-led invasion.