Baghdad Gas Crisis Blamed on Insurgent Sabotage

A monthlong gasoline crisis that has paralyzed the Iraqi capital is the result of an insurgent sabotage campaign aimed at choking off fuel supplies to Baghdad, officials say. Although attacks on the country’s overall oil infrastructure have decreased, pipelines and supply depots around the capital have been increasingly targeted, Western and Iraqi officials report. And with ambushes and bombings making many roads to Baghdad unsafe, fewer tanker trucks are able to deliver fuel to the capital. Lines at Baghdad gas stations stretch for miles. Officials say the attacks seem designed to further stress the beleaguered population, sow tension and diminish confidence in the U.S.-backed interim government. The shortage is a testament, they say, to insurgents’ increasing sophistication. “They have succeeded in limiting petroleum products in the Baghdad area,” said one Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. Full Story