Salih also said the Iraqi government would soon shuffle some members of the cabinet. The fighting appeared to have erupted from street level, during a dispute between the Iraqi forces and the Mahdi militia over a militiaman the Iraqi Army had taken prisoner. The Mahdi Army held its own against Iraqi Army troops, however, fighting them to a truce. On Tuesday, the fighting was stilled in the streets of Diwaniya after the battle on Monday, and Barham Salih, a deputy prime minister, said in an interview that "it was a very tough fight" that affirmed the government's strength. He said by telephone that witnesses had said that the spark that ignited the blast came from a man who used a lighter to check if his can was full. Hussain al-Janabi, director of Diwaniya hospital, said several bodies had arrived charred or burned beyond recognition. "They were filling their jerrycans until one of the looters lit a lighter to smoke his cigarette, and that resulted in the explosion," he said.ĭr. Lieutenant Rasheed said dozens of Diwaniya residents punctured the pipeline on Monday night. Residents then flocked to the pipeline to illegally tap the gasoline.ĭespite Iraq's huge oil reserves, corruption, mismanagement and the lack of security have created a severe gasoline shortage that has sent prices to $3.20 per gallon and forced drivers to wait in gasoline lines for as long as 24 hours. That battle, which killed at least 20 soldiers and militiamen and 8 civilians, drew away policemen guarding the pipeline that runs through parts of Diwaniya, said First Lt. The pipeline explosion appeared to be a result of what one official in Diwaniya called a "power vacuum" created by a battle there on Monday between the Iraqi Army and heavily armed members of the Mahdi Army, a militia controlled by the radical anti-American cleric Moktada al-Sadr. In Baghdad, more than two dozen bodies were found, one Iraqi official said about half of the victims had been bound and killed after apparently having been tortured. The death toll from the blast in Diwaniya might increase, said Hamid al-Shuwaili, the health director for Qadisiya Province, south of Baghdad.Īs of late Tuesday night, more than 100 people had been killed or found dead in the previous 24 hours, government officials said. 29 - At least 67 people, including dozens of looters siphoning gasoline from a government pipeline, were killed in an explosion late Monday night after fuel vapor was accidentally ignited by a cigarette lighter, the Iraqi police and government officials said.
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