Acquiring oil from amid embittered enemies in Iraq not easy

US yields on paying Saddam's soldiers as Iraq pipelines face new sabotage

BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US-led coalition announced that it would pay the salaries of as many as 250,000 former soldiers of Saddam Hussein as an ultimatum from demobilized troops prompted a policy U-turn amid growing post-war violence.

Oil ministry officials meanwhile said a fuel pipeline near the Syrian border had been sabotaged in the third attack on Iraq's exposed energy infrastructure in barely 10 days, highlighting the threat to future export revenues on which the coalition is counting to fund post-war reconstruction.

US and British officials had insisted that Iraqi soldiers would receive just a single month's severance payment after the occupation administration dissolved all Saddam's myriad security forces last month.

But faced with a deadline from former soldiers in the capital to pay up or faced armed attack, the coalition announced it would pay former enlisted men their salaries provided they renounced allegiance to Saddam's Baath party.

"The payments will be paid monthly and the recipients must renounce Baathism and violence," the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) said, adding that between 200,000 and 250,000 of the estimated 400,000 to 600,000 members of Saddam's security forces were expected to be eligible.

Officers of the rank of colonel and above have already been excluded under the coalition's policy of removing all senior Baathists from public life.

"The first payments to former soldiers will begin on July 14," the CPA said, adding that they would range between 50 and 250 dollars a month.

The occupation administration also announced that it would start recruiting for a promised New Iraqi Army next week, as it moved to provide long-term employment for the mass of discontented but well armed and well trained enlisted men now out of work.

"A division of 12,000 soldiers will be trained and operational in one year," the authority said, adding that the force would increase within two years to three divisions of 40,000 soldiers.

Coalition officials have said repeatedly that an army of 40,000 to 50,000 troops should be adequate for Iraq's population of some 26 million.

The coalition's policy U-turn on paying soldiers came as virtually daily protests by demobilized soldiers around Iraq culminated in a noon (0800 GMT) ultimatum from former troops in the capital who had threatened to launch suicide attacks against coalition forces if their demands were not met.

US forces have already come under attack from demobilised troops, many of whom melted away with their weapons after the rout of Saddam's army by the US-led coalition.

One US soldier was critically injured when former soldiers launched hit-and-run grenade and sniper attacks in the heart of the northern regional capital of Mosul earlier this month.

At least two Iraqis were killed and three wounded in the June 12-13 clashes, US commanders said.

US troops also open fired on ex-soldiers outside the occupation authority's Baghdad headquarters last Wednesday, killing two people in the first such incident in the capital since the entry of US troops on April 9.

Former troops have also been blamed for some of the deadly attacks which have targeted coalition forces in the Sunni Muslim tribal belt of western and north-central Iraq.

The region fared well under Saddam, and many of its residents have been left out of work by the dissolution of the army and other institutions of his Sunni-dominated regime.

In the latest attack in the region, oil ministry officials said saboteurs had blown up a fuel pipeline in the far west of the country, although US officials insisted they were unaware of any blast.

"The ministry is aware of an attack near al-Abidiyah al-Ghaarbiya not far from the Syrian border," an official said.

"It seems there are people prepared to mount such attacks every day on Iraq's pipelines," he added, after a gas duct exploded outside the town of Hit, 150 kilometres (95 miles) northwest of Baghdad, late Saturday in a blast residents described as sabotage.

A pipeline passes near al-Abidiyah al-Gharbiya, around 300 kilometres (190 miles) northwest of Baghdad, carrying Iraqi oil to the Syrian terminal of Banias on the Mediterranean Sea and Tripoli in Lebanon, according to infrastructure plans.

A similar blast holed an oil pipeline to Turkey earlier this month, and officials said Sunday repairs were still ongoing, delaying shipments.

Oil prices headed upwards on world markets Monday in the face of the new demonstration of the vulnerability of Iraq's exposed oil and gas infrastructure.

In London, the price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for August delivery rose 24 cents to 27.26 dollars a barrel in early trade.

New York's benchmark light sweet crude contract for July delivery was up 17 cents to 29.65 dollars a barrel in out-of-hours electronic deals.